


#^ 




Book ,G 4- ^ ^ S' 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 



Tivelve hundred and Jifty copies on/y of this book 
have been printed for the United States and England. 
It ivill not be reprinted in this or in any other form. 




.^/w5^y W// - //,)/, y ,'//> l>'':rit/i 






AT SEA WITH 
JOSEPH CONRAD 

BY 

J.^ G. SUTHERLAND 

CAPTAIN, R.N.R. 



WITH A FOREWORD BY 

JOSEPH CONRAD 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1922 









•2. ■:. 



Printed in Great Britain by the RiVEasioa I'kess Limited 

EdIN'UURGU 



DEDICATED TO 

MY SON 

BRIAN O'HALLORAN DEVEREUX SUTHERLAND 



LIST OF PLATES 



JOSEPH CONRAD .... 

AT TARGET PRACTICE 

ALL READY FOR SEA 

PIT-PROPS TO HIDE GUNS FROM AIRCRAFT 

MR JOSEPH CONRAD 

MR CONRAD AT THE WHEEL 

LIEUTENANT OSBORNE, R.N.R., AND MR CONRAD 

H.M.S. " READY " BECALMED 

A STRONG BREEZE .... 



Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 
24 

42 
. 48 

. 56 

60 
120 
124 



AIRSHIP WHICH REPORTED US AS A SUSPICIOUS 

VESSEL . . . . .138 

TRAWLER WHICH LANDED MR CONRAD AT BRID- 
LINGTON . . . . .140 



FOREWORD 

Dear Captain Sutherland^ 

When you first told me of 
your intention to publish a little hook about the 
cruise of the " Ready " in October-November 1 9 1 6, 
and asked me if I had any objection^ I told you that 
it was not in my power to raise an effective objection^ 
but that in any case the recollection of your kindness 
during those days when we were shipmates in the 
North Sea would have prevented me from putting 
as much as a formal protest in your way. Having 
taken that attitude^ and the book being now ready 
for publication^ I am glad of this opportunity of 
testifying to my regard for you^ for Lieutenant 
Osborne, R.N.R., and for the naval and civilian 
crews of H.M. Brigantine " Ready, ^' not forgetting 
Mr Moodie, the sailing master, whose sterling 
worth we all appreciated so much both as a 
seaman and as a shipmate. 

I have no doubt that your memories are accurate, 
but as these are exclusively concerned with my 
person I am at liberty, without giving offence, to 

9 



FOREWORD 

confess that I dont think they were worth preserv- 
ing in print. But that is your affair. What this 
experience meant to me in its outward sensations and 
deeper feelings must remain my private possession. 
I talked to very few persons about it. I certainly 
never imagined that any account of that cruise 
would come before the public. 

When the proofs of the little book, which you 
were good enough to send me., arrived here., I was 
laid up a?2d not in a condition to read anything. 
Afterwards I refrained on purpose. After all, 
these are your own recollections, in which you have 
insisted on giving me a prominent position, and the 
fitness of them had to be left to your own judgment 
and to your own expression. 

JOSEPH CONRAD, 

Osnvalds, Bishopsbourne. 



lO 



CHAPTER I 

" The Brotherhood of the Sea is no mere 
empty phrase." 

In these words Mr Joseph Conrad ended a 
letter which he sent to me on his arrival 
home after what was, without doubt, the most 
memorable and exciting experience of his 
seafaring career. 

It was in the winter of 191 6, when the 
Kaiser decided to redouble his submarine 
warfare, that my story begins. 

Ships were being sunk right and left, the 
German submarine commanders taking advan- 
tage of every kind of frightfulness, even the 
sinking at sight of neutral sailing craft which 
were engaged only in their ordinary commercial 
pursuits and which had no other end in view 
than the carriage of their products and manu- 
factures to the markets of other countries. 
The neutrals flew their colours at their mast- 
heads or from their gaffs, and on their sides 
had painted large ensigns from deck to water- 
line, leaving no loophole for the non-observance 
of International law. 

II 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

It was in such a small sailing vessel, during 
the height of a particularly severe winter, 
that Conrad set sail across the North Sea to 
work on the trade routes between Scotland, 
Norway and Denmark, where at the time the 
enemy was most active, on what he described 
as his "joyful experience of U-boat hunting." 

I met Conrad in peculiarly fortunate cir- 
cumstances. It was at Granton, a small port 
within easy reach of Edinburgh, where I was 
employed as Commander of Minesweeping 
Trawlers. Curiously enough, it was on the 
same day that, tired of the dull monotony of 
minesweeping, I applied for and was appointed 
to the command of H.M.S. brigantine Ready^ 
the first sailing ship to be commissioned for 
active service in the Great War. During the 
afternoon I had been visualising the possi- 
bilities of a fight under sail against a war 
vessel which depended not on wind power 
for manoeuvring in action, but worked under 
the most modern and scientific conditions both 
on the surface and under water. I knew 
full well that the odds were all against the 
brigantine, but the sheer joy of being in action 
with an enemy vessel appealed to me above 
all other things. I had scarcely arrived at 



12 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

this conclusion when I was sent for by the 
Commodore, and on entering his office found 
him chatting on things in general, and the 
work of the Base in particular, with a stranger 
whose appearance struck me as being very- 
much out of the ordinary. He was seated 
close to the window, with legs crossed, listen- 
ing intently to the Commodore and, as I 
thought, making mental notes of his conversa- 
tion. I waited cap in hand, standing very much 
at attention, to hear my senior officer's wishes, 
during which time I had ample opportunity 
of studying his visitor. 

My first impression was of a man of about 
middle age, extremely well groomed, with 
dark hair of which he had a plentiful supply, 
closely cropped beard and moustache with the 
slightest tinge of greyness, a manner courtly 
in the extreme, a fine, clever, sun-tanned face 
which betokened an outdoor life, with that 
very kindly smile which one associates with 
a person thoroughly interested in the world 
and its doings, and seeing only the bright side 
of things. He wore a monocle, which added 
to an appearance already distinguished, and 
during every lull in the conversation he 
turned to me with a look significant of 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

apology for the delay which I was being 
subjected to. I felt this and by looks tried 
to reassure him, so that I should have longer 
time to make up my mind as to who and 
what he was. He appeared to be familiar 
with expressions used by seamen, and used 
them himself in his questions and replies to 
the Commodore. This led me to conclude 
that he was a high naval personage of an 
Allied Power : high, because he conversed 
with the Commodore on an equality — the 
latter being Admiral Sir James Startin, K.C.B., 
one of those fine old types of naval officers 
who resigned their commissions in the Royal 
Navy to accept commissions in the junior 
ranks of the Royal Naval Reserve, so that his 
age would not preclude him from serving his 
country ; Allied, because he spoke with the 
slightest trace of a foreign accent. He did 
not speak like a Frenchman and certainly did 
not look Italian. While I was still wonder- 
ing, the Commodore rose from his seat and 
introduced me to none other than Conrad 
himself, whose books I had read and re-read, 
whose characters I, from my wanderings as 
a seaman, seemed to have met without acquir- 
ing that insight into their characters, lovable 

14 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

and otherwise, which he, with his extra- 
ordinary faculty of understanding the greatness 
and smallness of their natures, portrayed with 
such wonderful exactness in his books. I was 
intensely proud to meet him, and said so ; 
indeed I expressed my admiration in a manner 
which seemed to cause him no little em- 
barrassment, but which he was good enough 
to say he appreciated, in a manner indicative 
of the modesty which (I was to learn later) 
was characteristic of the man. 

The Commodore instructed me to show 
Mr Conrad everything there was to be seen 
— ships, guns, torpedoes, devices for disguise 
and indicator nets for trapping enemy sub- 
marines whose commanders might be daring 
and foolish enough to attempt to enter our 
harbours. The latter, in both construction 
and working, were very ingenious and compli- 
cated, necessitating quite a lengthy explanation 
to the average seaman and even to fishermen, 
who as a rule know everything there is to 
know about nets of every description. Conrad 
could not have seen this contrivance before, 
but his quick brain grasped the whole situation 
at once, all his surmises being absolutely 
correct in every detail. The drift nets, which, 

15 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

as their name indicates, are towed by drifters 
and fitted with explosive mines, were next 
shown to him, and with his seaman-like in- 
tuition he had the whole working of them at 
his finger-ends before I had time to explain 
the methods of their use. Indeed, trained as 
he was in the old sailing clippers, Conrad had 
almost uncanny powers for instantly gripping 
everything connected with wires, ropes, rigging 
and the innumerable different uses to which 
material necessary to the working of ships by 
shipmen could be put. 

Having carried out my Commodore's wishes 
to the letter, we adjourned to my cabin, where 
Conrad, having seated himself, was silent for 
some minutes, due possibly to turning over in 
his mind the numerous and well thought-out 
traps which to the seaman side of his nature 
were a revelation. The arrival of my steward 
with refreshments awoke him from his reverie, 
and it was then that I casually mentioned my 
appointment as commander of the brigantine. 
The effect of my remark was electrical : 
Conrad was a changed man ; his whole face 
lit up ; he was not now listening to parrot-like 
explanations of war measures, but to something 
that interested him more than anything he 

i6 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

had seen or heard. " A brigantine at war ! " 
Had he heard aright ? A brigantine, in days 
of super-dreadnoughts, battle cruisers, light 
cruisers and forty-knot destroyers, any one 
of which could have destroyed the whole of 
Nelson's squadrons at Trafalgar ! I assured 
him that such was actually the case, and he 
begged that he might be allowed to accompany 
me, to which I, as far as it lay in my power, 
joyously agreed. He asked more about the 
vessel, and I felt it my duty to tell him that 
the craft was seventy years old, falling to 
pieces, leaking like a sieve, and was at the 
time being patched up in a dry dock at Dundee. 
Having given him this information, I feared 
the pleasure of his company might be denied 
me ; but I had mistaken my man. The call 
of the sea, the spice of adventure, the thought 
of living as one of the characters created by 
his wonderful and imaginative brain, of again 
pacing the deck of a ship, sailing with every 
stitch of canvas set, or lying hove-to under a 
reefed fore-topsail, and main-staysail was too 
much to miss, and there and then we proceeded 
to the Commodore as a first step to gain his 
sanction to approach the Admiralty. At the 
outset he was all against such a proposition. 
B 17 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Indeed he painted the Ready even worse 
than she was, which was saying something, 
and as an alternative he offered Conrad a 
cruise on any other vessel under his com- 
mand, including mystery steam vessels, steam 
yachts, mine-sweepers, patrol vessels or motor 
launches. But Conrad held out. He wanted 
the sailing vessel — nothing else would do. 
And after much persuasion the Commodore 
went as far as to say that he personally 
had no objection, though of course Ad- 
miralty approval would first have to be 
obtained. 

I am unable to say whether or not the 
Commodore addressed, or rather submitted, 
the usual type of letter to the Secretary of the 
Admiralty, from whose office it would cir- 
culate until it finally reached the department 
concerned, or whether Conrad had a "friend 
at Court " at the Admiralty ! All I know was 
that approval was received, and in my anxiety 
to have Conrad with me I didn't much care 
how it was arranged, and never discussed it 
with him. 

Two years later, in reading Rear-Admiral 
Sir Douglas Brownrigg's delightful articles 
published in The Daily Telegraph under the 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

heading of" Indiscretions of the Naval Censor," 
I came across the following : — 

" I can honestly say now the war is over 
that no man has seen as much as Mr Conrad 
saw in those few months when he was going 
round observing all the various sorts of work 
the Mercantile Marine was performing. I 
even got permission for him to go out in one 
of the Q-boats which were at that time more 
or less in their infancy. I should say that 
when I got him permission this perhaps should 
not be taken au pied de la lettre. I asked the 
imperturbable Chief of the Staff (Admiral 
Sir Henry Oliver) if I might send him out. 
He looked up at me, merely saying, ' I don't 
want to know anything about it,' went on 
writing and smoking his pipe, so I darted out 
of the room, knowing that I could go ahead 
and that all I had to do was to square the 
Senior Naval Officer at the port of departure, 
which I did ! In due course, therefore, Mr 
Conrad went for a cruise in a Q-boat." 

The Q-boat was, of course, the brigantine 
under my command. I do not suppose that 
to this day Sir Douglas Brownrigg knows 

19 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

how very much I helped him to square that 
Senior Naval Officer ! 

The same evening I took my leave of 
Conrad, with a faithful promise that I would 
not " let him down " ; also that I would keep 
him informed of my movements. 

Later in the evening I was discussing the 
cruise with the Commodore. He remarked 
that he was undecided as to the wisdom of 
allowing Mr Conrad to come with me ; he 
was afraid that owing to his European reputa- 
tion he might be well known to agents of 
the Central Powers, and if we came off second 
best in a scrap and he were taken prisoner, he 
might be treated as a non-combatant and get 
short shrift. For this reason he felt he was 
taking a great responsibility, and thought that 
he ought to cancel his permission. I, how- 
ever, talked him over by saying that no one 
knew better than Conrad the risk he was tak- 
ing, and as long as he was prepared to accept 
it there need be no opposition on his (the 
Commodore's) part. Eventually he gave in, 
much to my great joy. 



20 



CHAPTER II 

I NOW proceeded to pick my First Lieutenant 
from innumerable officers who had volunteered 
to come with me. My choice fell on Lieu- 
tenant Henry Osborne, R.N.R., a great, strap- 
ping, lovable, good-looking fellow, to whom 
hard work was life itself, and who had that 
rare gift of getting work out of men with a 
feeling that they liked it. We had been mine- 
sweeping together for a considerable time and 
I had marked him down as a man who would 
go through anything. 

The following morning, having packed 
away our uniforms overnight, we proceeded 
in mufti, in order not to excite suspicion, to 
join the Ready at Dundee. 

Having inspected her, I found she was in 
a worse condition than I had anticipated. 
The foot of the foremast was worm-eaten and 
so rotten that steel bands were necessary to 
keep it together, and the rest of her — hull, 
spars, rigging and sails — was in a deplorable 
condition. I had a strong feeling that I 
ought to send Conrad a full and true report of 

21 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

my inspection, but on second thoughts decided 
not to do so, because it would not in any way 
affect his decision to sail with me, and — well, 
because I very much wanted him to come. 

Two weeks later the old craft was considered 
sufficiently patched, caulked and pitched to 
leave the dry dock, but on taking the water, 
like old wine in new bottles, we found that 
new planking and old timber did not go well 
together, with the result that the cuddy and 
lower forecastle were flooded out. More 
patching, more caulking and more pitching, 
however, rendered her sufficiently seaworthy 
to proceed to sea (a Board of Trade Certificate 
fortunately was not necessary ! ) and a day or 
two later we set sail for St Andrews Bay. 

I have given the foregoing description of 
the vessel in order to show that Conrad's life 
during his U-boat hunting experiences in the 
North Sea, in the depth of a very severe 
winter, was not spent in a luxuriously fitted 
warship — which would have been bad enough 
in all conscience — but in a very old, water- 
logged derelict, without the slightest pre- 
tensions to comfort of any sort. 

On my arrival at St Andrews Bay I 
dispatched a wire to Conrad's home requesting 

22 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

him to join me forty-eight hours later, as after 
that time I proposed to sail at the first favour- 
able opportunity. He came north the same 
night, fearful lest we should depart without 
him. 

Our guns, ammunition, bedding and stores, 
consumable and otherwise, were sent round 
by trawlers from Granton and transferred to 
us whilst at anchor in the bay — this, of course, 
to outwit any enemy spies who might be 
lurking at Dundee. 

At the time I did not know that Conrad 
had come north so hurriedly, and, as I did not 
communicate with the shore, he, I am sorry 
to say, had to spend a matter of thirty-six 
hours at a hotel overlooking the famous golf- 
course. He had received instructions from 
the Admiralty not to send wires or give any 
information of the proposed cruise, so that he 
was " between the devil and the deep sea " as 
to what he should do. 

However, on the third morning I requested 
the lieutenant in command of H. M.S. Zedwhale, 
at anchor close by, to proceed on shore, look 
for Mr Conrad and offer him a passage off. 
He had not far to look, as Conrad met him 
on landing, and having introduced himself, was 

23 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

given my message, and half-an-hour later was 
on board. 

During the preceding two days the lour 
twelve-pounder guns had been mounted, and 
during the fore and after noons the guns' crews 
were drilled to the highest point of perfec- 
tion. They were changed round in order 
that each member of the crew might under- 
stand each other's work and could, if neces- 
sary, become captains of the guns. We had 
imaginary casualties, so that loaders, if neces- 
sary, could, in addition to their own work, do 
the duties of Nos. i, 2, or sight-setters. Guns' 
crews on the off side, not engaged in action, 
were practised in filling up casualties at the 
guns, or in passing up ammunition from 
the hold. The " panic party," consisting of 
the sailing crew, was drilled in hoisting the 
boat out and scrambling into it for the purpose 
of abandoning the ship when ordered to do so 
by signal from the enemy, as was their custom 
before sending a party on board to destroy the 
vessel with time-fuse bombs. 

When Conrad came on board I introduced 
Osborne and Moodie the sailing master. 
With the former he conversed at length 
on present-day discipline in the Mercantile 

24 




AT TAKCET PRACTICE 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Marine. Osborne had, just previous to the 
war, been made mate of a four-masted, full- 
rigged ship, so that they were on common 
ground, and discussed matters with which 
they were both conversant. Conrad was glad 
to hear that the old discipline as he knew it 
still prevailed ; that the master, by ancient 
usage, had still the undisputed right to the 
weather side of the poop, and all the power 
and authority, unaided by any kind of force, 
which Master Mariners through the ages had 
built up for themselves, and against whose 
spoken word there was no appeal. 

Moodie, a shy, retiring, soft-spoken man, 
charmed him. He was different in every 
way from the skippers he had coasted with, 
or imagined other coasting skippers to be. 
Moodie, too, was able to tell him how an 
enemy submarine had sunk his schooner, and 
now that he was in an armed ship he was 
going to try very hard to get his own back. 

A little later I asked Conrad what his 
first impressions were on coming on board. 
" Different," he replied, " from anything I 
imagined. Instead of decks holystoned like 
a yacht, brasswork polished mirror-like, and 
everything to the last rope-yarn in its place, 

25 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

your ship seemed full of men, your decks 
lumbered and littered with all sorts of engines 
of destruction and ammunition, depth charges, 
lance bombs and disguises ; and I wondered 
if it would be possible to enjoy just one 
fragrant weed without running the risk of 
being blown sky high." 

Needless to say, the decks were cleared 
before we put to sea, and Conrad was able to 
enjoy not one, but many, though I am afraid 
the decks never reached that state of perfec- 
tion with which his captain, Jasper Allen, of 
the brig Bonita would have been content. At 
the same time, what would the gallant Jasper 
not have given for the armament of my almost 
derelict ship when the Dutch Lieutenant 
Heemskirk deliberately piled his beloved brig 
on the Tamissa Reef outside Makassar ! 

For an hour in the afternoon Conrad was 
left to himself, during which time he pene- 
trated everywhere, talked to each member of 
the crew and knew everybody long before I 
did. He learned that afternoon that the wire- 
less operator was in civil life a bank clerk, 
and that his name was Musgrove. He was 
equally well acquainted with the names and 
occupations of each other individual as well, 

26 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

including my own ; for I too had told him 
everything there was to be told almost before 
I knew him. He was sympathetic, extremely 
so, and strongly appealed to one. He was 
never inquisitive, never wanted to know any- 
thing which the whole world could not have 
known equally well. His human side was 
very human, and I suppose it was that which 
appealed so strongly to others and which 
made men trust him. 



27 



CHAPTER III 

The same evening we weighed anchor and 
were towed out of St Andrews Bay, having 
on board the Commodore and his staff, who 
had come from Granton by sea to inspect the 
Ready and to witness our gunnery practice. 
A target was laid out at 2000 yards' range. 
The guns were loaded, the captains of the 
guns being picked men, and highly trained 
gunners lined their eyes along the sights. At 
the order " Fire ! " they pressed their triggers, 
and the target was knocked endways. A new 
target was dropped, and at 3000 yards' fire 
was again opened with equally good results. 

Practice was then carried out at longer 
ranges and under more varied conditions, and 
continued until the Commodore had satisfied 
himself that further firing was unnecessary. 

Conrad had been watching through his 
marine glasses, and remarked on the fall of 
each shot which either hit the target or 
landed within a sufficiently measurable distance 
not to miss a submarine, offering as it would 
a much larger surface ; and he expressed his 

28 




ALL READY FOR SKA 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

great delight at the superb accuracy of the 
gunners, congratulating them personally on 
their high standard of excellence. He re- 
marked to me that no unarmoured vessel could 
have withstood the withering fire from our 
guns, and that the odds, as he conceived them 
to be, had very considerably lessened against 
the brigantine. 

It was a toss up between foolhardiness and 
cunning, and after some discussion we backed 
our cunning. 

Before the target practice the shooting 
abilities of our gunners was an unknown 
quantity ; now we were satisfied that if the 
enemy adhered to his usual procedure of first 
interrogating masters before sinking their 
vessels it would be a hundred to one on us. 
If, on the other hand, he were suspicious and 
torpedoed us without warning, we should 
be given short shrift. This last possibility 
was thrashed out at some length ; but as the 
brigantine was, in actual value, about half the 
cost of a modern torpedo, and as she was flying 
light, showing that no cargo was carried, we 
decided that it was an unlikely one. 

Conrad here asked me who on earth con- 
ceived the idea of sending a small sailing 

29 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

vessel out to fight submarines. He knew 
that the fighting men in Flanders in this, the 
twentieth, century had adopted methods of 
offence and defence which were not even 
hinted at in the text-books, and were more 
in keeping with battles between early day 
warriors ; but to send a very old wooden sail- 
ing vessel, which Nelson would have disowned 
as a fighting unit, to hunt for and give battle 
to a type of craft which had already destroyed 
battleships and cruisers, amazed him. He 
was somewhat surprised when I told him that 
the idea was not conceived by the Admiralty, 
not even by a professional seaman, but by a 
purely business man, head of one of the largest 
manufacturing industries in the country, who, 
on the outbreak of the war, surrendered every- 
thing, and accepted a junior commission in 
the R.N.V.R. on board one of H.M. sea-going 
vessels. Later on, this man, by sheer ability 
and powers of organisation, was promoted to 
the rank of commander, and appointed as 
Senior Staff Officer at Granton, then one of 
the largest and most important Bases on the 
East Coast. 

Conrad was greatly interested, and wished 
to know more about him — how the idea came 

30 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

to him, and who he was. I was glad of this, 
as it gave me an opportunity of paying a 
tribute to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 
and to Commander Kenneth Walker, the 
originator of the idea, and certainly the ablest 
and most capable Volunteer Officer with 
whom I had been brought in contact during 
the war. 

It was one of this officer's duties to examine 
the credentials of, and to gain as much in- 
formation as possible from, masters of neutral 
vessels arriving in the Firth of Forth ; and 
from many of these he learnt that they had 
repeatedly been stopped on their passage across 
the North Sea, and questioned by commanders 
of German submarines as to movements of 
British war vessels. (This was, of course, pre- 
vious to the Kaiser's orders to sink everything, 
regardless of nationality.) 

Commander Walker discussed the possi- 
bilities of fitting out such a vessel and sailing 
her under a neutral flag with Commander 
W. H. S. Ball, R.N., the technical expert of 
the Base ; and the idea having received his 
blessing,theyboth approached the Commodore, 
who agreed to ask for Admiralty sanction. 

Endless correspondence followed with the 
31 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Admiralty, their Lordships not at all approving 
of the scheme. Commander Walker, being 
a successful business man, and not used to 
having his propositions turned aside, pressed 
still further, going as far as to offer to pur- 
chase and fit out a vessel at his own expense, 
the result being the gaining of Admiralty 
sanction for the purchase of and commission- 
ing of the brigantine Ready. 

During this conversation with Conrad the 
Commodore, who had been inspecting the 
sleeping quarters with Osborne, approached 
and directed me to assemble the officers, petty 
officers and crew men on the quarter-deck. 

Having reported everybody aft, he asked 
each man in turn if he still wished to sail in 
the ship, assuring him that failure to do so 
would in no way prejudice him or affect his 
future. But each man had made up his mind 
to sail, and said so. The Commodore then 
asked Conrad if he still persisted in such a 
dangerous undertaking, to which he smilingly 
replied that he " would not miss the oppor- 
tunity for worlds." I was thanking my stars 
that the inspection was over, and that we should 
soon be under way, when the Commodore 
suggested that I should return to St Andrews 

32 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

and anchor there for another day, for what 
reason I do not know, unless it could possibly 
have been some premonition of disaster. He 
himself did not know what fear was ; indeed, 
he seemed to have been fighting all his life. 
For his services in the Zulu War he received 
promotion and was mentioned in dispatches. 
In the Egyptian War, 1882, he landed with 
the Naval Brigade. Further promotion and 
mention in dispatches came to him in the 
Benin War, and in the China War he 
commanded H.M.S. Arethusa. He wore the 
Silver and Bronze Medals with two clasps 
for saving life, on one occasion jumping fully 
dressed from the quarter-deck of one of his 
Majesty's ships and saving the life of a seaman 
who had fallen overboard. He was sixty- 
three years of age when he won the Albert 
Medal (the civilian V.C.) for descending into 
the cabin of a burning motor launch to make 
sure there was no one left on board. His 
absolute fearlessness was a byword in the 
Navy. I felt, therefore, that to obtain his 
consent I had only to say how very anxious 
we all were to go. He was not a man easily 
overruled, and if he decided against a thing 
he was always right. At the same time, he 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

listened to everybody and carefully weighed 
the facts on both sides. Daring and keenness 
appealed to him above everything, and the 
humblest rating under his command w^ith any 
idea of originality w^ould get the same hear- 
ing from him as would his " Second in 
Command." I simply said : " I would rather 
go, sir," and without any more ado he gave 
us permission. 



34 



CHAPTER IV 

It was now getting dusk. The Commodore 
had taken his leave of us, with parting in- 
structions to keep the colours flying. Conrad 
entrusted a small parcel to the Admiral's cox- 
swain to be posted to his literary agent, and 
a few minutes later we were entirely on our 
own. 

The order to " away aloft " was obeyed 
with alacrity by the sailing crew. Sails were 
loosened, buntlines and clewlines overhauled, 
and with the guns' crew manning the halyards 
and sheets all sail was soon made. 

There was one hitch, a slight difficulty in 
hoisting the upper topsail yard. I had not 
been in charge of a sailing ship for twenty-two 
years, and well do I remember giving the 
order to let go the topgallant sheets — an 
important detail which had been overlooked. 
I was glad of this, as I then felt I had forgotten 
nothing ; also it was an opportunity of con- 
vincing the sailing crew (a very conservative 
lot) that I was not a " steam-boat sailor " — a 
thing of contempt to the sailing-ship mariner. 

35 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

We got away before a following wind, and 
were soon clear of the land, when we were 
overhauled by a destroyer on patrol duty, the 
commander of which asked us our business. 
Osborne, disguised in a bowler hat and a thick 
muffler, with a very much torn, double-breasted, 
threadworn, blue serge coat, to say nothing of 
a clay pipe, which he considered part and 
parcel of a coasting mate's equipment, replied : 
" Hunting for a submarine." 

The destroyer's commander, evidently not 
having heard of Q-boats in those early 
days, then humorously inquired what we 
proposed to do with it when we found it ; 
to which Osborne as humorously replied : 
" Hoist it on board and tame it." This 
settled the matter, and we were allowed to 
proceed. 

All sail now being set, and the vessel mak- 
ing good headway, the guns' crews disappeared 
to their quarters below deck, in accordance 
with instructions, well drilled into them, that 
they should not show their faces above the 
gunwale during the hours of daylight, unless 
specially ordered to do so. This was in case 
a U-boat commander, looking through the 
periscope of a lurking enemy submarine, should 

36 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

consider the vessel overmanned, and become 
suspicious. 

Moodie, the sailing master, was at the 
wheel. Osborne was busy about the disguises 
which were to be carried out after dark, test- 
ing the night sights for the guns, and setting 
the watches for the night. 

I was standing aft with Conrad with an 
Admiralty Confidential Square Chart spread 
out on the skylight in front of us. On his 
asking me where I proposed to steer for, I 
pointed to the square where the Germans 
were at the time sinking Scandinavian sailing 
craft, and informed him that on reaching 
that position I should cruise about in the 
neighbourhood for some days. Conrad then 
laid off the course with the parallel rulers, 
measured the distance by compasses, looked 
up the flow of the tides from the sailing 
directions, and indeed took such a keen interest 
in the navigation of the vessel that I then 
and there suggested that he and Osborne 
should act as joint navigators, which he 
readily consented to do. 

Everything seemed now to be fairly snug, 
and we were beginning to feel the pangs of 
hunger when the cook approached with the 

37 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

joyful information that the evening meal was 
prepared. It was laid in the cuddy, and, 
leaving Moodie in charge of the deck, we 
three descended, Conrad taking up his place 
in the corner of the port side, which place 
he kept during the remainder of the cruise. 
The meal was very enjoyable. 

Conrad was very curious to know more 
about my intentions, and I fully enlightened 
him, adding that I should be very glad of 
the benefit of his advice, and hoped he 
would not withhold it if, at any time, he 
thought it advisable to proffer it. This put 
Conrad at his ease. He was good enough to 
say that he felt sure I should not need it. I, 
however, put it in orders that he, Osborne and 
I should meet in conference every evening, 
and discuss the situation. This was agreed to, 
and was of the greatest benefit to all concerned. 

" The Sea Sense " (one might describe it as 
" sea instinct " ) was well developed in all three 
of us, and it was surprising how much we all 
agreed on different points. There was no 
secrecy between us, and the decisions arrived 
at were at once communicated to the sailing 
master, and through him to the ship's company. 
This was all arranged during our first meal, 

38 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

and after discussing the different disguises, 
also which flag we should sail under — the 
Norwegian, Swedish or Danish. As the 
Norwegian vessels seemed to be receiving 
the special attention of the enemy at that 
time, we decided to fly their colours, and 
hoisted them with great ceremony, not to be 
hauled down until the first shot was fired in 
action, when, in its stead, would be run up the 
British White Ensign, which, on a separate 
set of halyards, was always ready for the 
eventful moment. We then returned to the 
cuddy, and after opening a bottle of rare old 
port (of which the far-seeing Osborne had 
laid in a plentiful stock) we toasted ourselves 
and our ship, and prayed for good fortune on 
the morrow. 

" Well," said I, as we again seated ourselves, 
" what are we going to call her ? " 

Conrad at once suggested " Freya," having 
in his mind " Freya of the Seven Isles," which 
he published as one of three stories in his Twixt 
Land and Sea in 19 12. I had read it, and the 
name appealed to me. Osborne liked it too, 
and that same evening our little vessel was 
christened "Freya," Conrad standing as spon- 
sor, with no small satisfaction that a British 

39 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

ship- of- war should bear the name of a girl 
created by his own wonderful imagination. 
The next thing to be done was to find a 
" Port of Registry " in keeping with her name 
and national colours. We wondered if enemy 
submarine commanders were supplied with 
the Scandinavian equivalent to our Lloyd's 
Register, by which he could, through his 
" glad-eye," as our own submarine officers 
humorously described the periscope, check 
the names of all vessels, their rigs, and home 
ports. However, we decided not to let this 
trouble us, and spreading out the large scale 
chart of Norway on the cuddy table, sought 
for a suitable name, and after closely examin- 
ing the different ports decided on Bergen. So 
the same hour our little vessel, called after 
Conrad's " Freya of the Isles" became the 
Freya of Bergen ; and I personally prayed for 
a happier fate for our Freya than befell the 
beautiful heroine of one of the most charming 
stories ever told. 

At 5.30 P.M. Conrad and I went on deck. 
It was a bright, clear night, but rather cloudy, 
and there was a moon somewhere. The dark 
outline of the coast was still in sight, and he 
stood for a full quarter of an hour gazing astern. 

40 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

He paced the deck alone, stopping occasionally 
to look into the lighted binnacle to see the 
direction of the ship's head, and then aloft to 
see how the sails were drawing. This he 
must have done thousands of times in his old 
sailing-ship days, when watching for every 
breath of air in the doldrums, between the 
north-east and south-east trade winds, when 
ships are becalmed for weeks at a time, and 
the trimming of the sails to every gust of wind 
meant so much, or when running before the 
prevailing westerly gales between the Cape 
of Good Hope and Australia. 

The poor weary officer of the watch, four 
hours on, four hours off, for months at a time, 
with record passages in his mind, could no more 
pass a binnacle without looking into it than 
fly. He did it automatically, and Conrad was 
doing the same then. I remarked this to 
him, and in the few minutes' conversation we 
had he remarked that in his younger days the 
romance of the sailing vessel always made him 
forget the drudgery connected with it, " when 
the hardest work was never too hard, nor the 
longest day too long." With steam every- 
thing was quite different. The work was too 
mechanical, and the mantle which rested on the 

^ 41 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

shoulders of the maker of fast passages, giving 
him a reputation world-wide, had passed to 
the cylinder, the piston, the crank, and the 
power of steam. 

It was now quite dark, and Osborne, with 
all hands, started to disguise the vessel. Freya^ 
in large, white block letters, was painted amid- 
ships on the port and starboard sides, and 
Norwegian ensigns on both bows and quarters, 
all with the aid of lamplight, from stages 
rigged over the sides. Hundreds of pit-props, 
cylindrical in shape and about four feet long, 
were sawn lengthwise in two, and nailed close 
together on boards, which were set up along 
the port and starboard gunwales, the full 
length of the ship, to give the enemy the 
impression that we were carrying a cargo of 
props for use in our coal mines. The same 
arrano-ement was constructed across the after- 
deck in front of the binnacle, so that a 
submarine coming up astern could neither 
see that the decks were clear of all obstruc- 
tions, nor that four twelve-pounder guns were 
waiting for her to come within range. 

Whilst this was going on I sat on the after- 
hatchway, working out what should be done 
in certain eventualities. 

42 




I'lT PROPS TO HIDE GUN'S FROM AIRCRAIT 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Conrad was still watching the fast fading 
coast-line, which, owing to the freshening of 
the following wind, was disappearing from 
view. 

I had decided on every action that would 
have to be taken to frustrate all possible 
attempts on the part of the enemy to destroy 
us, and was anxious to discuss my conclusions 
with Conrad and Osborne. 

I waited until Conrad had awakened from 
his reverie, which he did about fifteen minutes 
later. Then together we paced the deck in 
the darkness and I unfolded my plans. 

Osborne was still busy with the disguises, 
on the completion of which we all three 
inspected and passed them as being sufficient 
for our needs at the moment. I then sug- 
gested that we should adjourn to the cuddy 
to discuss the plan of campaign, leaving 
Moodie in charge of the deck ; but on 
Conrad's suggestion he was invited to the 
conference, for the reason as before related, 
that he had had his schooner sunk under 
him and could give valuable information. 
Moodie was instructed to turn over the 
charge of the vessel to the mate, a very 
first-class seaman. This he lost no time in 

43 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

doing, and we four sat round the little cuddy 
table, an indifferent oil lamp swinging over- 
head, throwing out an equally indifferent 
light, under which we discussed every possible 
kind of night attack and every possible means 
of combating each one. 

Needless to say, no Admiralty instructions 
had at that time been issued for plans of 
attack on board sailing vessels in action against 
steam- or petrol-driven submarines. There- 
fore our Round Table Conference might fairly 
well be described as unique. The decisions 
arrived at were : 

(i) In no circumstances should Morse 
signalling be used in replying to 
challenges or directions from other 
craft, on the score that its use was 
not customary in small sailing craft. 
(2) Should the beam of a searchlight be 
thrown on us, all hands were to go 
to action stations, the brigantine to 
stand on until a shot was fired across 
our bows, when the vessel was to be 
brought to the wind, and the twin 
motors used for working the vessel 
to keep the guns trained to be got 
ready for running. 
44 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

(3) As only enemy submarines were known 

to be carrying out these practices, 
every endeavour was to be made to 
bring the enemy within sure hitting 
distance before opening fire, owing 
to the rapidity with which she could 
extinguish her lights, and make it 
impossible for us to see her. 

(4) Wireless was not to be used until the 

action opened. 

(5) Motors were not to be run until the 

vessel went into action, for fear of 

the enemy picking up the sound on 

their hydrophone. 

These instructions were then written out 

and posted up in the cuddy, the guns' crews 

mess deck, and in the sleeping quarters of the 

sailing crew. 

We were all very tired by this time, and, 
leaving Moodie in charge of the deck, Conrad, 
Osborne and I retired to bunks off the cuddy, 
with the mistaken idea that we were going 
to enjoy a good rest, which we should have 
done had it not been for Rampling, the chief 
engineer of the motors, who seemed to have 
a mania for working twenty-three hours out 
of twenty-four. He kept up an unceasing 

45 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

hammering, accompanied by song, underneath 
our sleeping deck. When he was not tinker- 
ing with his charges he was oiHng them, or 
fining the tanks, and the smell of petrol per- 
meated our sleeping quarters to such an extent 
that, in my sleepless moments, I decided that 
Rampling's occupation of one of the berths 
would in some way relieve the difficulty. So 
at 2 A.M. I descended to the engine-room, and 
informed this worthy that he needed rest — 
indeed that we all needed it — and with a very 
cheery " Aye, aye, sir," he finished up with 
the last two lines of what I was glad to hear 
was the last verse of his song, and proceeded 
on deck to have what he described as " a final 
puff" before turning in. 

The moving of Rampling from the deck- 
house quarters to be nearer his engines meant 
also the moving of the skipper and mate, 
to make room for us. Whether Rampling 
continued his nocturnal tinkerings or not I 
cannot say ; but with the entire absence of 
any complaints from Moodie or his mate, 
and the improved and refreshed appearance 
of Rampling, I gathered that he had decided 
to rest himself for lengthier periods, and to 
confine his labours to the hours of daylight. 

46 



CHAPTER V 

Breakfast the morning after our departure 
was a wonderful meal, quite different from 
what I had expected. Heather, my servant, 
who had been with me when I was in charge 
of a submarine flotilla, and later in command 
of mine-sweeping trawlers, informed me in 
his own inimitable way that we had " some 
cook." Conrad remarked on his excellent 
cooking ; Osborne looked happy about it ; and 
I was so pleased that I sent for him to receive 
our congratulations. 

He appeared with spotlessly white cap and 
apron, fully conscious of his capabilities. But 
the rig of our friend gave me food for thought. 
I felt that he, too, needed disguising, but feared 
to wound him. I knew he meant well, but 
I knew also that chefs were touchy people. 
Yet I saw that it was a difficulty that should 
be overcome. 

Fortune favoured me, for on going my rounds 
after breakfast I noticed that his apron, owing 
to the confined galley space, was no longer 
spotless, and I there and then excused him 

47 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

from wearing cap or apron during the cruise ; 
a privilege for which he seemed grateful, and 
which was satisfactory from all points. 

During the forenoon I walked the deck with 
Conrad, and asked him what impressed him 
most on leaving the night before. I reminded 
him that he appeared to be very preoccupied 
with his thoughts, and, having read his books, 
I, at the time, wondered what was pass- 
ing through his mind. He replied that the 
complete blackness of the coast, absolutely 
lightless as it was, reminded him of some 
island in the Pacific, uninhabited or peopled 
by savages, and that this sight brought war 
home to him more than anything else had 
done. Thirty years previously he had sailed 
in the same waters in the barquentine Skimmer 
of the Seas, on board of which he had shipped 
at Lowestoft, which town he considers his 
English birthplace, for the reason that it was 
the first port he landed in this country after 
some years' voyaging to the West Indies. 

In this vessel, which was engaged in the 
coasting trade, Conrad remained for a consider- 
able period. T/ie/i the whole coast was lit up. 
He knew every lighthouse from their revolving 
or occulting variations ; the lighted buoys, 

48 




MR. JOSKI'H CONRAD 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

marking Channels or the outer ends of shoals, 
he also knew. Passenger liners showing 
myriads of lights passed him on either side, 
relieving the monotony of the darkness ; and 
on the East Coast the flames leaping skyward 
from the blast furnaces of the great steel and 
iron works impressed him with the strength 
and might of the country of his adoption. 
Now everything was different ! Not a glimmer 
of a light anywhere. The great mother of 
the greatest Empire the world has ever known 
was shrouded in utter darkness. Ships passed 
on their way, not only minus their navigation 
lights, but with dead-lights screwed hard down 
over their port-holes, so that not a streak of 
light should show outboard. 

Two years previously the shipmaster's 
watchword was " Safety above Everything." 
With us it was Action. We looked for it, 
hoped for it, and even prayed for it ; also that 
it should not belong delayed. 'Tis no wonder 
that the great novelist's thoughts should have 
been preoccupied. 

The wind increased during the forenoon, 

making it advisable to take in the topgallant 

and upper staysails. The rottenness of the 

foremast made it necessary for us to exercise 

D 49 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

caution in not putting any undue pressure on 
it. Under this rig we sailed for the remainder 
of the day. 

It was during the afternoon that we 
exchanged sleeping quarters with Moodie, 
the mate (whose name I forget) and Rampling. 
They were very cheery about it, more especi- 
ally Rampling, a great, big, fifteen-stone 
fellow, with a heart of gold, who sang and 
laughed alternately, and was forever pulling 
the legs of the guns' and sailing crews. 
Previous to the war he was chauffeur to 
Admiral Lord Beatty, and was proud of the 
fact. 

Our new quarters, situated on the starboard 
side of the deck-house, were very bare indeed. 
Four unpainted wooden bunks, carpetless 
deck, a small enamel washing basin, a mirror 
purchasable at any shop which would stock it 
at sixpence, and an oil lamp, fixed by a nail to 
whichever part of the cabin it was at the time 
required, completed the furniture and fittings. 

The second night out we played cards for 
some hours. Nap was invariably the game, 
and the stakes were very moderate indeed. 
Beans were used as counters, twelve of these 
going to a penny. We all three enjoyed the 

50 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

game, and though one was never in more 
than a shilling on the night's play, sometimes 
even less, the joy of winning was very great ; 
and the hands held were always discussed over 
the midnight cup of cocoa, our last repast 
before turning in for the night. 

During dinner, and both before and after 
play, Conrad would talk on different matters, 
which always greatly interested Osborne and 
myself. Never once did we interrupt him, 
nor was it necessary to have any points ex- 
plained, so clear did he make everything. 
Sometimes he would talk of his early sea 
experiences, and of his book Victory which, 
just previous to the war, he had completed, 
and which was at the time being dramatised 
by Macdonald Hastings for the stage. He 
thought at that time that it would be produced 
by the late H. B. Irving when hostilities 
were over ; but, as is now well known, it was 
produced by Miss Marie Lohr. 

The Freya^ as she must now be described, 
leaked to the extent of nine to ten feet every 
twenty-four hours, and was pumped out dur- 
ing the hours of darkness, generally at mid- 
night, when all hands were called to man the 
pumps. 

51 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Usually in Scandinavian vessels a wind-mill, 
continually working, keeps the bilges dry ; 
but I was not sorry at the absence of this 
most excellent device, as the pumping, which 
lasted an hour, kept the men in condition, 
more especially the guns' crews, who spent 
their days under hatches. 

The pumps, which were as old as the ship 
herself, were very often choked ; but Moodie, 
with his quick ear, always scented the fault 
of the mechanism, and was able, with little 
delay, to remedy the defect, and save us from 
becoming water-logged. 

I can't think of what would have happened 
if Moodie had not been blessed with this 
peculiar knowledge. Mr Basil Lubbock, in 
one of his delightful stories of the American 
wooden sailing clippers, writes of a certain 
well-known skipper of bygone days who, 
when his vessel was lying hove-to and leak- 
ing more than usual, threw large quantities of 
rope yarns over the side, which were sucked 
into the leaks, thereby lessening the inrush of 
water. I am afraid our old tub was past that, 
for the reason that it would have taken the 
yarn of every rope we had on board to have 
made any appreciable difference. 

52 



CHAPTER VI 

We generally retired for the night after the 
holds were pumped dry. Conrad and I had 
upper bunks, Osborne occupying a lower one, 
and, sad to relate, owing to seas which we 
were continually shipping, a fair amount of 
which found its way into our cabin, the con- 
stant rush of water from one side of the berth 
to the other as the vessel rolled kept his mat- 
tress and bedclothes in a state of dampness, 
which was not at all to his liking. 

As Conrad read for an hour or two before 
turning in, our one lamp, of the cheap paraffin 
variety, was hung on a nail close to his bunk, 
and was generally kept alight all night in case 
of a sudden call. This suited our guest, as on 
occasions I turned in leaving him fast asleep, 
only to wake up an hour or two later to find 
him reading Hartley Withers' War and 
Lombard Street, the only book he read during 
the whole cruise. This particular publication 
was fo him one of absorbing interest, and he 
devoted all his reading time to the study of it. 
We were not supplied with a library on board, 

53 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

but individual members of the crew had 
brought with them novels and magazines of 
the light and non-technical type. These, 
however, did not appeal to Conrad, and he 
never read them. 

We seldom if ever undressed. Indeed, we 
discarded little else than our caps, mufflers 
and sea boots. It was an every-morning 
occurrence to see Conrad sitting over the 
edge of his bunk pulling on his long rubber 
sea boots in order to step on to the wet deck. 
This always amused him, and his cheeriness 
was most infectious. 

We each had the exclusive use of the cabin 
for an hour each day — a bucket of hot water 
being provided by the cook — and this, save 
for our after-dinner chats, was voted by all 
three the most enjoyable hour of the day. 
Indeed, these two occasions were the only 
relaxation we had from the dull monotony of 
eternally looking for an enemy surface vessel, 
or the periscope of an underwater craft. 

The second night out the wind increased 
to a gale, the sea rising to enormous heights. 
Canvas was reduced to fore upper topsail and 
fore and main staysails. We ran before it 
for a while, and then after an hour or two 

54 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

decided to heave-to. As we had only about 
fifty tons of ballast on board, and a couple of 
thousand pit-props in the hold, the latter to 
keep the vessel afloat should an enemy shell 
find its mark below the water-line, we tossed 
about like a cork on the water, shipping heavy 
seas and damaging our disguises. Indeed, 
many were swept overboard, but were re- 
placed by others as they went, even at the 
risk of losing some of our men, although I 
had taken the precaution of having life-lines 
round them. The gale lasted about thirty- 
six hours, during which time we found it 
necessary to do double pumping. After that 
it moderated sufficiently to enable us to run 
before it, and as it got still finer we set more 
sail and brought the vessel to her course. 

We had had a severe buff^eting, and of 
course the unpleasantness of it all reminded 
us of worse gales we had been through. All 
three of us had experienced " Rounding Cape 
Horn " and " Running the Easting Down " or, 
in other words, the passage from South of the 
Cape of Good Hope to Australia ; and it was 
during one of these we had all experienced 
terrible weather, the worst of which was when 
we were in sailing ships. 

55 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Rampling kept us alive through it all. He 
was humorous and had a fund of good stories, 
though his chief subject of conversation was 
Admiral Beatty — " his " Admiral, as he always 
spoke of him. According to him, Beatty ought 
to have been First Lord of the Admiralty, 
Civil as well as Sea. He ought to have been 
in Cradock's place at Coronel, where he would 
have knocked the Germans out ! The Goeben 
and the Breslau would never have escaped 
him, and Turkey would never have come into 
the war had Beatty been in the Mediterranean! 
Beatty ought to have been Commander-in- 
Chief of the Grand Fleet on the outbreak of 
war, as no Hun vessel would then have dared 
to leave harbour ! Indeed, his veneration for 
his former employer was so great that I at 
times feared he might say that if Beatty had 
commanded my Q-boat he would already have 
sunk half-a-dozen German submarines. 

I always felt that I had a lot to live up 
to in satisfying Rampling as to my qualifi- 
cations. Whether I succeeded or not I 
cannot say, but whenever I did anything in 
front of the guardian of my motors I always 
wondered how Admiral Beatty would have 
acted in similar circumstances. I remember 

56 




MK. C OXKAD AT THE WHEEI. 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

telling Conrad this, and it greatly amused 
him. 

The weather for the next few days was as 
good as could be expected for the time of the 
year — strong winds, with high seas, and bitterly 
cold. Conrad joined in the work of the ship, 
lending a hand whenever it was required, often 
relieving the man at the wheel, so that the 
latter might have a smoke during the fore- 
noon and afternoon watches. The pit-prop dis- 
guises, which were continually being washed 
away, he kept a keen eye on, for it gave him 
the opportunity of hammering large-sized 
French nails into the woodwork, which he 
did with all the strength and power of a village 
blacksmith. 

The rough weather which we experienced 
and the constant rolling and pitching of the not 
nearly ballasted vessel (I asked for one hundred 
tons and was allowed only fifty) damped our 
spirits but little. We had reached the danger 
area, and were simply begging to be attacked; 
eager eyes from behind pit-props scoured the 
horizon for a sign of anything approaching the 
appearance of an enemy submarine. Musgrove, 
the wireless operator, on the pretence that he 
was always repairing something, simply lived 

57 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

in the top-mast crosstrees with his Zeiss marine 
glasses, anxious to be the first to sight the 
enemy. 

The North Sea is a big place, and days 
passed without our seeing as much as the smoke 
of a passing steamship. Conrad agreed with 
me that we should have sailed down the 
English Channel and up the Irish Sea, where 
submarines were known to be operating in 
large numbers. I had pleaded to be allowed 
to take these courses, and I can never help 
thinking that commanding officers of areas 
did not, at that period of the war, co-operate 
sufficiently. True, up to then no enemy sub- 
marine had been sunk by a sailing war vessel. 
Ours was purely an experimental proposition. 
At the same time, it ought to have been 
apparent to even a layman that our chances of 
success would have been greater in confined 
waters than in the North Sea, where hunting 
for a submarine, at the most at six knots an 
hour, was like looking for a needle in a 
haystack. 

The idea originated at Granton, and to 
Granton must be given the credit of fitting 
out the first sailing war vessel. But that was 
no reason why the task of testing her should 

58 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

be confined to the North Sea. True, enemy 
submarines had been active in certain chart 
squares, but during the interval of getting 
Admiralty approval for the purchase of and 
the fitting out of the vessel, German com- 
manders had changed their scene of opera- 
tions, and during all those disappointing days 
of not going into action I felt that, had 
I been allowed to have my way, we should 
have been in the thick of it within twelve 
hours of passing through the Straits of 
Dover and certainly before reaching Land's 
End. 

I could not get this out of my mind, and 
I expressed my feelings pretty strongly to 
Conrad on the matter, but he would not be 
drawn into any discussion, and, beyond agree- 
ing that we had had bad luck so far, he 
would say nothing more. To him an order 
from superior authority was an order to be 
obeyed, and there was an end to it. I, 
naturally, did not discuss this with Osborne 
or the crew, so that any expression of 
opinion to Conrad on the subject would in 
no way have affected the discipline of the 
ship's company, which was of a very high 
standard. Indeed I was reminded of Admiral 

59 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Hopwood's verse in his The Laws of the 
Navy : — 

" Take heed what you say of your rulers, 
Be your words spoken softly or plain, 
Lest a bird of the air tell the matter, 
And so ye shall hear it again." 

Conrad took under his own special care 
a quick-firing Gardner gun, which he un- 
earthed from the top of the deck-house, and 
personally screwed it down on the after-sky- 
light hatch. He examined the mechanism at 
intervals, to make sure that the sea water had 
not rusted the parts, and always kept it in 
a high state of perfection. He called it 
" his " gun, and assured us that whatever else 
failed, his gun would not. 

We continued to play cards at night, and at 
the same stakes, small as they were ; indeed 
our daily and nightly routine never altered, 
and Osborne and I certainly did look forward 
to listening to Conrad's experiences, after we 
had entered up the nightly score and paid 
over our losses. On one such occasion, and 
to my surprise, he told me that during the 
war he had been to sea in one of the mine- 
sweepers out of Yarmouth, and that what 
most impressed him was the deadly dullness of 

60 




LIEUI'. OSBORNE, K.N.R. 



MR. CONRAD 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

minesweeping, added to which was the risk 
at any moment of being blown up without 
the satisfaction of being able to hit back. 
He also remarked on the fact that where 
mines were known to be laid every class of 
vessel, other than minesweepers, was given 
a five-mile radius, inside of which they were 
not to approach until the mines had been 
swept up and destroyed. 

Osborne and I, both being minesweeping 
officers, greatly appreciated Conrad's views, 
and said so. 

When Conrad had something amusing to 
say he first laughed to himself, more especially 
if the joke were against himself. He amused 
us greatly by telling us that, before proceeding 
to sweep up mines, he wired his wife of his 
intentions, and she, in reply, wired, " Don't 
catch cold," acting on which he went on 
shore and added to his stock of clothing 
a cardigan jacket, which stood him in good 
stead during the bitterly cold days and 
nights spent at sea with us. The joke was, 
that catching cold was the last thing that 
would worry a minesweeper, as in trawlers 
one went out without any certainty of coming 
back ; and to survive clearing a mine-field in 

6i 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

a vessel drawing from fifteen to sixteen feet 
was a blessing for which one ought to be 
sufficiently thankful, without worrying too 
much about the passing ills to which the flesh 
is heir from cold or otherwise. 



62 



CHAPTER VII 

During the hours of daylight, when those 
on deck were consciously or unconsciously 
keeping their eyes lifting for submarines, it 
was no small wonder that this particular 
object of our search completely dominated 
our whole thoughts. I had sat with, talked 
and walked with Conrad on deck, each scan- 
ning different parts of the sea, one or the 
other sometimes stopping to examine through 
marine glasses what turned out to be purely 
imaginary objects, yet which could not be 
overlooked. 

On one occasion Conrad spotted a fisher- 
man's dan-buoy just barely visible, which the 
untrained eye of the landsman could never 
have detected. I remarked this to Conrad, 
who discoursed at some length on the sub- 
ject of optics, to the study of which he had 
apparently devoted much time. 

It naturally occurred to those other than 
myself that it might be the periscope of an 
enemy submarine, but as I had been in charge 

63 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

of a submarine flotilla from August 19 14 to 
March 19 16, and had from the latter date 
used dan-buoys on a large scale in connection 
with mine-sweeping, I readily distinguished 
the difference from the fact that where a 
periscope would be perpendicular, except 
when the submarine was submerging or 
coming to the surface, the dan-buoy was 
tossing about at all angles. It should be 
explained here that a dan-buoy is a wooden 
spar, about twelve to sixteen feet long, 
weighted at one end to keep it as nearly 
upright as possible, with cork fitted, oval in 
shape, about the middle of the spar to give 
it buoyancy. 

As usual, my deduction and explanation 
interested Conrad. I don't think he had 
previously realised that I had any knowledge 
of submarines and their workings ; he was 
amused beyond measure when I told him of 
my appointment to the Submarine Service, 
which is perhaps worth recording. 

Opening my morning paper the morning 
after the declaration of war I read, in bold, 
block type, " Naval Reserves Called Out," 
and on reporting at 58 Victoria Street, S.W., 
the Headquarters of the Admiral Commanding 

64 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Coastguards and Reserves, I found myself 
appointed to H.M.S. Dolphin^ better known 
as Fort Blockhouse, the Alma Mater of 
the Submarine Service, for command of 
H.M.S. Nettle^ and in charge on Extended 
Defence Duty of the Second Submarine 
Flotilla. On mildly protesting that I had 
had no experience v^ith submarines, the 
Assistant to the Admiral, ignoring my re- 
marks, directed his secretary to make the 
necessary arrangements for my carrying out 
his instructions. 

On my reporting for duty I v^as fortunate 
in meeting a commanding officer. Commander 
(now Captain) Algernon Candy, R.N., who 
in peace time had shown great interest in the 
" Reserves," and who, on the outbreak of war, 
fully appreciated their value. After a few 
explanations I found I was to act as his deputy 
at sea, and soon fully realised that as a pioneer 
of submarining he was required to be in close 
touch with the Admiralty and the Commander- 
in-Chief, Portsmouth, not only for consultation 
on the development of the Submarine Service 
and the training of officers and ratings, but 
also for a hundred and one other reasons. 
Included amongst these was the making of 
E 65 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

necessary arrangements for and attending to 
the needs of French destroyers and sub- 
marines operating from our Base and working 
alternate days and nights at sea with our flotilla, 
under the orders of Commander Vincent de 
Brechignac. This officer was of striking ap- 
pearance, with great charm and personality, 
who, with the officers under him, at once 
won the hearts of his British colleagues in the 
" Trade," by which cognomen the Submarine 
Service is popularly known. The object of 
the patrol was that the submarines should 
attack any enemy vessels which might force 
the Straits of Dover. 

After many weary months of waiting, which 
sorely tried the patience of the submarine 
officers, as there appeared to be no likelihood 
of such an eventuality, the French submarines 
returned to their Base and the Second Sub- 
marine Flotilla was disbanded. 

My appointment at Fort Blockhouse was 
a very interesting and happy one for me, and 
during my stay there it was my privilege to 
meet the Lions of the " Trade." Nasmith, 
Boyle and Holbrooke were there, all three 
Dardanelles V.C's., who are as well known to 
the great British public as our greatest and 

66 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

most distinguished admirals. D.S.O.'s, with 
and without bars, were common in the 
" Trade," and the younger officers wore their 
D.S.C.'s with that dehghtful feeling that they 
were well won — and they were. 

One fine morning, fairly early in the war, 
six " H " Class Submarines arrived at the Base 
from Canada, six others of the same class 
having been dispatched from Halifax, Nova 
Scotia, to Malta. These vessels were con- 
structed in the record time of five months, 
and crossed the Atlantic on their own bottoms. 
I mention this fact, as some years later a great 
sensation was caused when it became known 
that the German submarine Deutschland, a 
much larger vessel, had crossed the Atlantic. 
The secrecy of the crossing of our submarines 
never leaked out — one of the hundred other 
feats accomplished by officers and men of the 
Royal Navy unknown to the many who were 
continually asking " What is the Navy doing ? " 
In charge of one of the submarines was a 
temporary lieutenant R.N.R., afterwards pro- 
moted to lieutenant-commander and awarded 
the D.S.O. for a great feat of resource and 
seamanship. Submerged in the Bight of 
Heligoland, his vessel struck a German mine, 

67 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

which completely blew her bows off. By 
skilful handling this officer managed to navi- 
gate his vessel to an East Coast port, under 
her own power, a feat which won for him 
the admiration of the " Trade," composed, as 
it was, of officers who had themselves done 
great things. 

Conrad enjoyed hearing all this, but he said 
there must have been a hundred and one 
submarine adventures not generally known 
outside the " Trade," adventures which to 
the naval officer, however great the achieve- 
ment, were looked upon as ordinary incidents 
in the day's work, to be forgotten and not 
talked about. Submarine officers are a type 
peculiar to themselves — very unlike their 
" big ship " brothers-in-arms. There is a 
bond between them born of the constant 
danger to which even in peace time they are 
exposed, a freemasonry which it is perhaps 
difficult to describe, and which is extended 
whole-heartedly to officers and men of the 
Reserve and Volunteer forces, with whom 
they were associated during the Great War. 

I count myself fortunate to have belonged 
to the " Trade"; and as Conrad and I continued 
our walk, still keeping our eyes skinned for a 

68 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

lurking Hun, I was able to tell him many 
tales, which he thoroughly enjoyed. 

There was the lovely tale of how one of our 
most brilliant submarine officers hoodwinked 
the Turks when they thought they were 
fooling him, and how he more than got his 
own back. It was during the early days of 
the Dardanelles campaign when, after some 
considerable time in the Sea of Marmora, he 
reported by wireless that he had expended 
his torpedoes and was returning to the Base for 
supplies. Whilst waiting either for his relief 
or for approval of his signal he noticed greater 
activity on the part of Turkish shipping, and 
rightly concluded that the Turks had by some 
means gained possession of our Confidential 
Code Book and decoded his message. He 
proceeded with all speed to his Base, took in 
a full supply of torpedoes and without delay 
returned to the scene of operations. Immedi- 
ately on his arrival he sent exactly the same 
signal and bided his time. Ten Turkish 
troopships sailed that day and ten Turkish 
troopships were sunk with all on board. 

I gave Conrad the submarine commander's 
name, but not for worlds would I put it in 
print. I am too proud of his friendship to do 

69 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

so, knowing full well that I should lose it if 
I did. 

During the first week of the war a British 
submarine cruising submerged in the Bight 
of Heligoland had a very narrow escape from 
being blown up. A bumping was heard on 
the starboard bow which could not be ac- 
counted for. On the commander deciding to 
come to the surface to investigate, his horror 
may be imagined when, on looking out of 
the conning tower, he beheld a German mine 
on his starboard forward diving plane. It ap- 
peared that the mooring wire of the mine was 
caught between the submarine and the plane, 
and the forward movement of the vessel 
brought the mine down to the plane, which 
was held there by the weight of the sinker 
being towed. Very little was known about 
the mechanism of German mines in those 
days, but with careful handling it was cleared 
and destroyed. 

To my mind one of the most daring feats 
carried out by a British submarine was when 
her commander, somewhere off the German 
coast, discovered his vessel had developed 
engine trouble to such an extent that he saw 
no possible way of returning to his Base except 

70 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

by being towed back. He made plans accord- 
ingly : during the night he explained to his 
second-in-command, petty officers and crew 
that just before daylight, the hour when look- 
outs are most tired and weary, he would en- 
deavour to come to the surface alongside a 
German trawler which was usually at anchor 
off a point of land close by. Everything 
worked according to plan : the submarine 
was skilfully handled and came to the surface 
alongside the trawler. The forward hatch 
was thrown up, out of which and on to the 
deck of the trawler poured armed men. The 
wireless was immediately destroyed, the 
Germans were made prisoners in their own 
vessel, and a quarter of an hour later the 
British submarine was being towed to Harwich 
by a German trawler, where they arrived in 
due course. 

Conrad enjoyed these stories greatly, and 
was somewhat sorry that at the time I could 
not recount more. He was amused with a 
story told me by Commander W. H. S. Ball, 
R.N., who was one of the pioneers of the 
British Submarine Service, and who, with 
Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon, Vice-Admiral Sir 
Roger Keyes, Captain Percy Addison, R.N., 

71 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Captain Algernon Candy, R.N., and others did 
much by taking incalculable risks to bring 
the Submarine Service to its present high 
state of perfection. 

Commander Ball's story was of what he 
described as the earliest ancestor of the K boat. 
This was a glass box covered with ass's skin, 
made to the order of Alexander the Great in 
the fourth century B.C. This bold general must 
have been absolutely fearless, for in those days 
it required no small courage to allow oneself 
to be shut up in a box and lowered below the 
water. Apparently it tried even his own 
nerves, as he saw many monsters, and some 
things so horrible that he would not speak 
of them till the day of his death. It must 
be remembered that he would be able to see 
little, so probably imagination played a large 
part in the things he thought he saw. There 
are many accounts of this adventure in exist- 
ence, all more or less wonderful, but the cold 
facts appear to be that the great general got 
inside the door, was sealed up with tar, and 
lowered to the bottom by a chain. By an 
accident, which in those days may or may not 
have been intentional, the chain was let go 
from the boat, and the king was left sitting in 

72 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

his box on the bottom, looking at and being 
looked at by " horrible things." However, 
to the relief of his friends, and presumably 
the chagrin of those who had axes to grind 
in his disappearance, the box broke, and up 
his majesty shot to the surface, when he was 
rescued, a wetted and wiser man. 

This episode stands out alone in ancient 
history, and it is not on record that any other 
person went under water in a completely 
enclosed vessel until comparatively modern 
times. 



n 



CHAPTER VIII 

The wireless was rigged after dark, and always 
taken down before daylight, but we made 
little use of it. When the weather was not 
too bad, and the improvised wireless room 
not under water, Musgrove used to " listen in " 
for some tit-bits of intercepted information, 
which we were very glad to get, more par- 
ticularly the news that President Wilson had 
been re-elected President of the United States 
of America. We had all three hoped he 
would be, and were delighted when the news 
came through. 

Up to this time we had received only one 
direct wireless message, this to the effect that 
enemy submarines had been sighted in a 
certain latitude and longitude ; but as we 
were about sixty miles from that position, it 
was not much use to us, as it would, at our 
speed, have taken twelve hours to reach it, 
during which time the submarines would 
have altered their positions considerably. 

Conrad did not ask to send any wireless 
74 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

messages, nor did he receive any. He 
certainly had all a father's anxiety for his 
eldest son Boris, who had joined up early in 
191 5 and was then doing his bit in France 
with the I loth Battery under General Plumer. 
Boris, of whom his father often spoke with 
the greatest pride and affection, was originally 
intended for a seafaring career, and was, 
previous to the war, a cadet on board H.M.S. 
Worcester. The call to arms, however, was 
too much for him, and as soon as he was 
accepted for service he was trained and sent to 
France. Conrad was proud that he had a son 
fighting for England, and would have been 
prouder still if he could have given his son 
John too ; but John was still a boy at school, 
Boris went through the campaign scathless 
until just before the Armistice, when he was 
knocked out and badly wounded, entailing his 
going into hospital for a lengthy period. 

Admiral Sir Douglas Brownrigg, in his 
Indiscretions of the Naval Censor^ writing of 
Conrad's flight experience, says : 

" He was a perfectly delightful man to deal 
with, enthusiastic over everything he saw and 
did, including a flight in a Royal Naval Air 
Service Machine against a 60-mile gale, piloted, 

75 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

as he put it, by a child ; meaning a young 
officer of 21 or so." 

Conrad told us about this after dinner one 
night, but he made little of it. " He would 
not have missed it," he said, and wanted to 
experience anything connected with the war 
under the worst conditions. He was certainly 
doing it with us, as the weather was unusually 
bad, sometimes terrific, and our clothes were 
never dry. Yet not one word did he ever 
express of regret at having come, was always 
breezy and cheerful, and prayed only that we 
should have the luck to get into action. 

The dynamo for the wireless set was worked 
by a small petrol engine fitted on deck, and 
w^hen this did appear above water after heavy 
weather, Musgrove got busy about it, with 
the huge Rampling looking on. It was always 
amusing to watch the little operator trying 
to start the thing up, and there was certainly 
every excuse for any difficulties he may have 
had, owing to its being constantly saturated 
with salt water. Musgrove knew all about 
motor bicycles — he had owned different makes 
at different times — but this was the deuce ! 
He was a good-natured little fellow, and 
could stand any amount of chaff, a good deal of 

76 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

which he got from Rampling, who, naturally, 
was more expert. They were the Mutt and 
JefF of the piece, and Conrad and I laughed 
loudly and long at their sallies. We never 
missed this part of the day's work, and, unlike 
music hall comedians, their performance was 
different every time. 

The ninth day out the wind increased during 
the afternoon to a moderate gale, making it 
again necessary to heave-to, and after dark it 
blew with such fury that we thought the 
masts would go by the board. The vessel 
was straining heavily and leaking so badly that 
it was found necessary to pump her every four 
hours, and then for an hour and a half at a time. 
No one attempted to sleep that night, and 
through the first middle and morning watches 
we just wondered what was going to happen. 
How the few sails set were not blown away, 
worn and old as they were, nobody knew ; but 
they held, or this book would never have been 
written. It was a terrible night, the worst 
we had experienced during the whole cruise, 
and not one that will be easily forgotten. The 
deck seams opened so much that water leaked 
through to the cuddy and sleeping compart- 
ments, and as we had neither pitch, oakum nor 

77 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

caulking tools on board, we suffered great in- 
convenience from wet during the remainder of 
the passage. When the weather moderated we 
stood away again, and continued on our hunt. 

Bad weather or discomfort made not the 
slightest difference to Conrad. He was used 
to it — " brought up on it " as it were — and 
was just living over again some of the hard- 
ships he experienced during his seafaring 
career. I have often noticed during my old 
sailing-ship days that sailors are more cheery 
under short canvas in a gale, when there is 
nothing else to do but stand-by for the 
weather to moderate, than in the doldrums 
between the north-east and south-east trade 
winds, when there is the constant trimming 
of sails to catch the varying winds between 
the intervals of holystoning decks, repairing 
rigging or scraping paint work. Sailors hate 
monotony, and there is no monotony in a 
gale, when any minute anything may happen. 
True, there was none in fine weather with us, 
for the reason that we were hunting enemy 
submarines, but the old training made bad- 
weather cheeriness a habit with us, and habit 
dies hard, more particularly at sea. 

In bad weather, fiddles (cross pieces of wood) 
78 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

were always used on the cuddy table during 
meal times, and even then soup plates and 
vegetable dishes were constantly somersaulting 
from one side to the other, and Heather, my 
small servant, was continually diving under 
the table retrieving potatoes, cruets, buns and 
sauce bottles. The breakages were appalling. 
How we prayed for a table that would remain 
horizontal, or for something that would keep 
the ship steady, if only during meal times — a 
sort of gyroscope that one could run, if only 
for the time being ; but all the praying in the 
world made not the slightest difference, and 
more often than not the meal was a regular 
scramble. Apropos of gyroscopes a very 
amusing unsigned article appeared in the 
Nautical Magazine^ which read : 

" It is related that in a little coasting 
steamer for a time experiments were made 
with an anti-rolling gyroscope, and the skipper 
confessed to a friend that every time, and all 
the time, the gyroscope was running he was 
in deadly terror the gyrating object would 
break loose or asunder and smash the hull to 
pieces ; and moreover, that whenever he came 
into ' weather ' of any moment he took good 

79 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

care to see that the apparatus was ' chained 
up. 



> 7> 



Coasting skippers, I know, are a conservative 
lot, and dislike new inventions. Their ships 
have rolled under them all their lives, and 
they could go on rolling for all they cared ; 
so it was no wonder that the " apparatus " in 
this particular instance was " chained up '* 
when it was most needed. Had we been 
supplied with it, also with the power to drive 
it, I feel quite certain there were many 
occasions when we should have used it, even 
at the risk of parting the old craft's timbers, 
and eventually ourselves floating away on 
pit-props. 

It was during the last gale, when Conrad 
and I were taking shelter under the lee of the 
deck-house, that he reminded me of the 
parcel he sent on shore by the Commodore's 
coxswain on leaving. I remembered it, for 
the reason that the Commodore's vessel had 
cast off, and in order to deliver Conrad's parcel 
I requested that he might come alongside 
again — a request most unusual for a junior 
officer to make to a senior ; but as he was in 
steam and I in sail there was nothing else for 

80 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

it. I laughingly asked him if it were his last 
will and testament. He assured me that it was 
not so, but a gold watch-chain which he had 
purchased out of the first money earned as 
captain of a ship. 

It was a bitterly cold night, and as there 
was no real reason why we should stand there 
and freeze, I suggested we should go down to 
the cuddy, where we found Osborne trying to 
warm himself at the fire, which was doing its 
best to smoke him out. I have often thought 
that the cheeriness of the sailor is due in a 
large way to the delightful way he has of 
comparing his lot in life, not with those whom 
fortune has placed in what would appear to 
others as more enviable surroundings, but to 
the man who is worse ofi^ than himself. He 
is sorry of course for Bill or Tom, or whatever 
his name may be, but the fact that he is better 
placed and perhaps drawing more dollars cheers 
him no end. 

On this particular occasion I was frozen 
through, and, turning over in my mind those 
of my friends whom I thought might gladly 
change places with me, my thoughts flew to 
my bosom friend, Roderick Day, Commander 
R.N.R., who must be building roads through 
F 8t 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

ice and snow somewhere in the Arctic. Day 
had been with Scott and Shackleton in the 
Antarctic Expedition, 1 901- 1904, and was 
chosen, I imagine, for the reason of his power- 
ful physique and extraordinary strength as much 
as for his tact and cheeriness. I had known 
Day for twenty years, and a letter sent from him 
at Archangel, which I read to Conrad, told me 
about the great road he had built over the snow, 
in some places seven feet deep, from Skibotn 
in the Lyngen Fjords at the extreme north of 
Norway, over the mountains and along the 
Finnish-Swedish frontier to the railhead at 
Tornea in the Gulf of Bothnia, the distance 
being approximately 380 miles. 

The British Government, after the failure 
of the Gallipoli Campaign, were at their wits' 
end to get ammunition and stores into Russia 
from Great Britain ; the Dardanelles being 
closed they were compelled to search for 
other routes. A firm of Finnish contractors 
reported that it was possible to make a road 
between the points before mentioned, and on 
the Foreign Office applying to the Admiralty 
for an officer with experience in Polar regions. 
Lieutenant Day, R.N.R., as he then was, re- 
ceived instructions to proceedtoNorway and get 

82 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

in touch with the contractors. Day examined 
the whole route from Skibotn to Tornea and 
reported that it was a practical possibility. 
The work was commenced by leading rein- 
deer over the route — I say " leading " and not 
" driving," for the reason that a Laplander led 
the first half-dozen tied together and the others 
followed. These were followed by horses 
drawing sleighs, and in three weeks the road 
was made. This, of course, from Day's modest 
description of the undertaking, seems to have 
been a very simple matter, but during that time 
accommodation was built at different stages 
of the route for the sheltering of 5000 men 
and stabling for 4500 horses, the reindeer of 
course being allowed to wander about in the 
snow. When the road was handed over to 
the Russians, Day resumed his naval duties at 
Archangel. 

Conrad, who had listened intently through 
the reading of the letter, was deeply impressed. 
He was glad that a sailor should have been 
selected, and pleased that he should have 
accomplished so much, and he often referred 
to it afterwards. 

In July 1919, after completing the mine 
clearance on the north and north-west coasts 

S3 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

of Ireland, I met Day in London, and although 
this story has nothing to do with our voyage 
in the Freya^ it is more or less a sequel to one 
of our fireside conversations in the cuddy of 
the old brigantine. I had just congratulated 
him on his wonderful undertaking when, with 
that great robust laugh of his, he assured me 
that the making of the route was as nothing 
compared with the anxiety it caused him 
later. 

I include his story in the book for the reason 
that when I met Conrad after the war he 
made tender inquiries about Day. 

It appears that during the winter of 19 1 6- 
1 9 1 7, owing to difficulties between the Russians 
and Finns, the latter cut off the supply of hay 
which was necessary for the horses used for 
transport, and a considerable quantity of war 
munitions were hung up on the route. 

In January 19 18 Day was again sent for 
by the Foreign Office, when it was explained 
to him that they were afraid that the stores 
might fall into the hands of the Germans, and 
that he was to proceed at once to Finland and 
do all in his power to avert this, the sum of 
jTi 0,000 being placed to his credit for this 
purpose. On Day's arrival at Stockholm he 

84 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

made a provisional agreement with a contractor 
whereby the latter was to deliver to him all 
the goods hung up in Finland, with the 
exception of some 5000 cases of boots, which 
were to be sold to the Finnish State in 
exchange for bombs, the remainder of the 
stores to be placed on board ship at Skibotn. 
Later, Day left for Skibotn, where he heard 
from indisputable evidence that a member of 
the firm of the Finnish contractors had entered 
into negotiations with the Germans to sell the 
whole of these goods for the sum of 1 20,000,000 
kroners. He also heard that the same con- 
tractor had entered into a sub-contract with a 
Norwegian shipowner to recover the stores, sell 
part of the goods in Scandinavia, and transport 
the remainder over the Narvick Railway to 
Haparanda. Day took prompt and immediate 
action ; he prevented the Finnish contractor 
and the Norwegian shipowner from carrying 
out their prearranged schemes, and on his 
own responsibility made new contracts and 
proposals with the Norwegian. Unfortunately 
the Germans arrived before all the stores were 
recovered, and were able to seize 300 tons of 
metals and 2500 cases of boots. Two of 
Day's officers, Lieutenant I. K. Storey, R.N.R., 

85 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

and Paymaster Lieutenant Burke, R.N.R., were 
made prisoners and, insufficiently clad, with a 
temperature of minus 35°, were taken by sleigh 
under armed escort across Finland to Tornea. 
Day next proceeded to recover the metal and 
boots seized by the Germans. He knew they 
could not transport the stores without hay for 
horses, and as they had none in Finland they 
must obtain it from Norway or Sweden, which 
was prohibited. Day placed secret agents on 
the frontiers of both countries and reported 
to Stockholm any attempt made to smuggle 
hay into Finland. He could not stop it 
from Sweden, but made it impossible for the 
Germans to transport the stores to Tornea, 
and seeing this route closed to them they 
decided to bring the goods due south to a 
station on the Narvick Railway in Sweden. 
As soon as they were committed to this 
line of action. Day allowed them to have all 
the hay they wanted, and contented himself 
by keeping a check on the metal brought to 
Sweden. The British Minister at Stockholm 
was then able to seize the whole lot, and by 
Day's wonderful ingenuity and instrumentality 
stores to the value of ^6,500,000 were not 
only prevented from falling into the hands 

86 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

of the Germans, but also, save for a small 
quantity sold in Scandinavia, reshipped to 
England. 

In return for services w^hich can only be 
described as amazing, in the face of the extra- 
ordinary difficulties with which he had been 
confronted. Day, as a Royal Naval Reserve 
Officer, was awarded the Most Excellent Order 
of the British Empire (O.B.E.) ! Had there 
been a Scott or Shackleton at the Admiralty 
or Foreign Office, I venture to think that he 
would have received something more fitting 
in the way of a reward. 



87 



CHAPTER IX 

Since beginning this book I have often wished 
that I could report Conrad's conversation in 
his own words. His expressed opinions were 
given in the most delightful English. I had, 
in my time, met many distinguished literary 
men, and listened to them for hours, but none 
of them had ever impressed me as he did with 
the beauty of the English language. When- 
ever I saw him on deck, or chatted with him 
after dinner, I wondered how on earth he could 
have mastered it as he did. His vocabulary 
seemed unlimited, his phrasing delightful, and 
his delivery such that it always gripped me. 

He talked about the Courts of Europe as 
would a courtier ; he knew everybody and 
how they became anybody ; and if a new 
personage rose to prominence in European 
or Asiatic affairs he knew what following he 
had, and how long he was likely to remain in 
power. He knew the conducts of Parliaments, 
the Reichstag of Germany, the Reichsrath of 
Austria, the Italian Senate, and what was once 
the Duma of Russia. • He could trace the 

88 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

origin of all the crowned heads, and the great 
aristocratic families who had made history ; 
who married who and why ; and the effect 
these marriage alliances had in grouping great 
Powers together for their mutual betterment. 
Nothing has ever so much brought home 
to me my own utter lack of education as 
in listening to Conrad. His great flow of 
language, his wonderful marshalling of facts 
and marvellous grasp of matters often made 
me wonder why one sailor should know so 
much and the generality of them so little. 

I remarked to him that, of all the profes- 
sions, officers both in the Navy and Mercantile 
Marine were the least educated, adding that 
the officer in the Mercantile Marine, save 
for the study of navigation and seamanship, 
finishes his education at a time when his more 
fortunate brother goes to his 'varsity or enters 
one of the learned professions. The naval 
officer, from the time he first sets foot on 
board ship, talks of little else but his job. 
This, I suppose, is as it should be. Start him 
off and he will hold forth on guns, torpedoes, 
engines and ammunition, till you hate the 
very names of them. He will tell you how 
at target practice his ship had the highest 

89 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

average of hits of any vessel in his squadron ; 
how on some occasion or other his ship got 
torpedo nets out in seventeen seconds ; or how 
at Zanzibar or Hong-Kong in the all-comers 
sailing-boat race over a triangular course of 
three miles their cutter won easily, beating 
over thirty others of various rigs, from large 
sailing launches to gigs and whalers ; but, 
delightful as he always makes his conversation, 
he never gets away from his own job. All 
this I told Conrad, even adding that in sport 
— and the naval officer is always a sportsman — 
the thing that interests him most is the Navy 
and Army Rugby Match, or some other form 
of sport connected with the Senior Service. 
Conrad listened intently, but he would have 
none of it. Then I said that, as a naval 
officer, the cadet from the public school was 
better educated and more a man of the world 
than the Britannia-trained youth. Conrad 
again disagreed with me. He simply would 
not believe it ; and when I argued that such 
was the finding of a Commission set up to 
inquire into the advantages and disadvantages 
of both, he waxed eloquent, became even 
dramatic, and said the Commission was no 
doubt composed of schoolmasters — the very 

90 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

worst people in the world to decide any- 
thing. 

The Britannia-trained cadet was to him 
everything that an ofRcer should be. His 
education was on right lines, and he would 
not have it altered one iota. He instanced 
the facts that Lord Howe's letters, great 
fighter that he was, were far from scholarly ; 
that Nelson's reports of his manoeuvres were 
in some cases difficult to follow ; and yet, in 
spite of this, Britannia-trained youths had, 
after rising to eminence, proved themselves 
great ambassadors, great governors of colonies, 
and from their quarter-decks had, by rapid 
computation and with great tact, settled many 
questions of supreme national importance, 
and always to their country's advantage. He 
deplored any outside interference with the 
education and training of the naval officer. 
It was a matter which should be left solely 
and absolutely in the hands of those who had 
served before him and had risen high in the 
country's service — men to whom tradition was 
everything, and who even in their advanced 
age never lost touch with the great service to 
which they justly and proudly boasted they 
had the honour to belong. 

91 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Yes ; I was wrong. Conrad convinced me 
that I was. Not that I was ever lacking in 
my veneration for tradition, but in this argu- 
ment I had left it out of my calculations, and 
thought only of education in its accepted sense 
as applied to the other learned professions. 

I know little about the transference of 
thought, but with each individual member 
of the crew thinking the same thing and 
saying nothing the effect may be imagined. 
It did not come suddenly, but I felt it grow- 
ing, and wondered in my own mind where 
it was going to end. Osborne, usually the 
cheeriest and most optimistic of souls, lost 
something of his gaiety. Rampling grew 
less communicative. Musgrove spent more 
time aloft, and, if possible, kept a better look- 
out. I knew what it was, for I had the 
same feeling myself and consequently felt for 
the others. In short, it was the bitter dis- 
appointment of not having been in action. 
Conrad must have felt as we did, but he was 
splendid, and never appeared to lose hope that 
the great moment for which we all longed 
would eventually come. 

During daylight we scanned the horizon 
right round, and with marine glasses searched 

92 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

every inch of the sea within the line of 
visibility, but up to that time to no purpose ; 
and it was no small wonder that at the end of 
each successive day, when the sun went down 
and darkness set in, that we felt that another 
day during which an opportunity might have 
occurred had been wasted. 

Sitting in the cuddy one night after our 
usual game of nap, Osborne, with all the 
superstition of the seaman, remarked that he 
thought the Norwegian ensign was unlucky 
for us, and that we ought to try the Swedish 
or Danish. As, however, the weather was 
unusually bad and heavy seas were running, 
the painting of the flags on the sides fore and 
aft to bring them in keeping with the national 
colours flying from the peak seemed too 
dangerous to undertake, more especially as the 
operation would have to be carried out under 
cover of darkness. So the idea was abandoned. 
Poor Osborne was disappointed — I knew he 
would be ; I also knew that he would have 
undertaken the job single-handed. But he 
was too valuable to risk losing, and it was too 
much to ask any other member of the crew to 
undertake what was, after all, the gratification 
of a mere superstition. Osborne, however, 

93 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

had had his say ; he had, as it were, got it off 
his mind and felt all the better for it ; his 
cheeriness returned and never left him again. 
Conrad listened to all this without interrupt- 
ing. He felt, I imagine, that it was a matter 
of argument between the commander and his 
first lieutenant ; and when the subject had 
been well discussed, and a decision had been 
arrived at, he turned the conversation into 
more congenial channels. 

He talked of his old seafaring days, and 
amused us greatly by telling us of his experi- 
ences as night-watchman on board the wooden- 
built sailing clipper Duke of Sutherland^ when 
lying alongside the wharf at Sydney, N.S.W. 
He was, I think, sailing " before the mast " at 
the time, and was chosen from among the rest 
of the crew for the reason of his temperate 
habits. This, of course, meant that he was on 
duty from eight p.m. until six a.m., during 
which time the safety of the ship depended on 
his vigilance ; and from my own experience 
of the old sailing-ship days, a great deal of his 
time must have been spent in assisting certain 
jubilant members of the crew over the gang- 
way, and with great tact heading them in the 
right direction for the forecastle. This was 

94 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

all that they wanted, as they had no desire to 
bring down on their own heads, as well as on 
that of their " ship mate " and friend " the 
night-watchman," the wrath of an awakened 
skipper, who had his own way, should he so 
desire, of making life impossible for them. 

His tales of fights between seamen of 
different ships on the Circular Quay, Sydney, 
were very descriptive. On occasions, when 
cabs were waiting for the incoming mail 
steamers, the drivers would, with their 
vehicles, form a ring, and many a good scrap 
was witnessed. 

Conrad, as night-watchman, found he was 
missing a good deal of this sort of fun, and 
after a time requested that he might be 
relieved from his night duties, which 
request, as I can imagine, was very reluctantly 
approved. 

We decided now to head away in the 
direction of the entrance to the Baltic, and 
as the weather got finer, and we got a good 
spell of sunshine, the spirits of the ship's 
company revived. One night we received 
another wireless message to say that German 
submarines were reported to be in a certain 
latitude and longitude, but as the position was 

95 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

a hundred miles or so from ours, and we were 
doing only about five knots an hour, it was 
not much good to us, more especially as the 
course they were steering was not given to 
us. Goodness only knew where they would 
have been twenty hours later, the time it 
would have taken us to reach the reported 
position. So, after a consultation with Conrad, 
Osborne and Moodie, I decided to stand on, 
and simply acknowledged receipt of the wire- 
less message. After this decision we returned 
to the cuddy for cocoa. Conrad was still 
poring over his book, IVar and Lombard Street, 
and on this particular night I asked him about 
it. His reply was : " It is most interesting 
and full of useful information." He en- 
deavoured to enlighten us on many subjects 
dealt with in it, and thought all masters and 
officers should be thoroughly conversant with 
matters connected with the money markets of 
the world ; also with company law, stocks and 
shares, insurance and deals. Indeed, accord- 
ing to him, sailors had great opportunities of 
mastering the details of finance, and had 
excellent ways and means of studying them. 
What I thought was that all sailors are not 
Conrads, but I did not say so. Two or three 

96 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

days later he presented me with this book, 
suitably inscribed and autographed, and it is 
now one of my greatest treasures. 

We made a good " land fall " or " we 
were several miles out in our reckoning " are 
common enough expressions with seamen, 
a good " land fall " being the result of good 
and careful navigation, and sighting a point 
of land at an expected time on an expected 
bearing. Conrad could never understand why 
a steamship should be ever even half-a-mile 
out of her course, having not only a patent 
log for measuring the distance run, but what 
was still better, an indicator showing the 
revolutions of the engines, which, after allow- 
ing for some small percentage of slip, should 
give her position with great accuracy. 

In sailing ships it was different. One 
certainly did " heave the log " at eight bells — 
that is, once every four hours. This gave the 
speed of the ship at the particular moment of 
heaving, leaving the " officer of the watch " to 
guess the average hourly speed, after taking 
into consideration the variations in the strength 
of wind, state of sea, increase or reduction of 
sail and leeway, the last perhaps the most 
important factor of all. 
G 97 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

The sailing master has his worries too ; the 
losing or gaining rate of his chronometer after, 
say, three months at sea may be anything. 
Extremes of temperature, from the icy blast 
off Cape Horn to the heat of the Tropics, are 
bad for its delicate mechanism, and may put 
him ten miles east or west of an assumed posi- 
tion. He looks to his big brother the steamer, 
if he sights one, to give him a " rate," and 
the big brother is always kind. He hoists 
his red ensign, and at the moment of hauling 
it down the sailing master notes the time of 
his chronometer : later, the big brother signals 
the time of his and, as he is more correct, the 
little brother allows for the difference and 
fixes his position accordingly. 

One evening Conrad told me of a "land 
fall" he made, and of which he was justly 
proud. When in command of the barque 
Otago he cleared from Sydney for Mauritius 
on the 4th August 1888. The day of departure 
was a very stormy one indeed, surprising even 
to the Sydney pilot, who suggested that 
sailing should be postponed until the weather 
moderated. Conrad, however, decided to 
proceed, and as he was relating the story 
suddenly remembered and laughingly told me 

98 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

that when he got outside the Heads all his 
crockery was smashed. He was racing a 
French ship, also bound for Mauritius, and 
had received permission from his owners to 
proceed by way of Torres Straits, so as to 
shorten the distance. After sixteen days' sail- 
ing in light variable winds and through cross 
currents, and with but two solar and one lunar 
observations, he sighted the distinguishing 
marks — nothing more than a pole and basket 
on one of the small islands at the entrance to 
the Bligh Channel. As a navigator this to 
me was a very fine and skilful feat of naviga- 
tion. It was not told to me in any boasting 
spirit : Conrad would have been the last man 
in the world to be guilty of such a thing, but 
meant rather to illustrate the instinctive feel- 
ing which seamen by long practice acquire, 
and which makes them feel where they are, 
and what allowances should be made for com- 
bating the elements, and the hundred and one 
other things sent to try the patience of the 
sailing-ship master. 

The difficulties of navigating the Bligh 
Channel and the Torres Straits, with their 
coral reefs, rocks and other outlying dangers, 
have always been well known to navigators. 

99 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Mariners are warned, when approaching the 
former, that " it is little more than half-a- 
mile wide, and in some parts navigable for 
only two cables (four hundred yards). It is 
dangerous from its intricacy and the great 
strength of the tidal streams, and it is only 
necessary to add that the vessel should be 
navigated from aloft and with the sun in a 
favourable position." After passing through 
this channel one enters the Torres Straits, 
where during the north-west monsoon the 
water is frequently so discoloured that the eye 
is unable to detect the position of the shoals. 
It was here, about twenty-five years ago, that 
the steamship ^etta of the British India 
Steam Navigation Company, when travelling 
through at a speed of fourteen knots, took a 
rock like a steeplechaser, went right over it 
and down the other side, drowning one 
hundred and fifty of her passengers and crew. 
The sailing-ship masters of those days were 
daring fellows, and Conrad was certainly one 
of them. 

In the Indian Ocean, whilst plunging in a 
head sea, the Otago sprung her fore-topgallant 
mast. Conrad " put it down " to the second 
mate carrying the outer jib too long. He 

100 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

thought for a minute and added " she didn't 
like the outer jib." Sailing ships, like race- 
horses, have their own peculiarities, their own 
likes and dislikes, and it seemed wonderful 
that thirty years later Conrad should have 
remembered this particular sensitiveness of his 
first command. He gave orders for striking 
the mast (sending it down), but his crew 
agreed to carry on with it, and take their 
chances, which gave me the impression that 
he ruled not by fear but by his own wonderful 
personality, which attracted men to him and 
encouraged them to take risks beyond the 
ordinary ones which are part of a sailor's life. 
The Otago arrived off Port Louis, Mauritius, 
at night, and anchored close under the land. 
On the following morning, » when weighing 
anchor to proceed into harbour, Conrad found 
he had fouled his anchor with another lost or 
slipped from another vessel, and, in spite of 
the laborious work in clearing it and the con- 
sequent delay, he reached Port Louis two days 
ahead of the Frenchman. The Otago arrived 
at Melbourne from Mauritius on 5th January 
1889. In February 1889 she loaded a cargo 
of wheat at Port Minlacowie, South Australia, 
for Port Adelaide, where she arrived on 

lOI 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

26th March, when Conrad gave up his 
command. 

I have often wondered why Conrad, born, 
as he was, far removed from the sea, should 
have adopted it as a profession. I can't even 
say whether he inherited the sea instinct or 
not, but that he was a great seaman there can 
be no doubt, and great seamen, like men great 
in other professions, are born, not made. 

He once told me he felt more at home with 
seamen than with men in any other walk of 
life. He liked their conversation, their ideas, 
their broad outlook and their views of life 
generally. They were, above all things, com- 
panionable, and their cheery optimism was a 
delight to him. He could tell a sailor at sight, 
not by his roll or by his peculiar rig, but by 
some strange look in his eyes, due, no doubt, 
to always gazing miles ahead. On another 
occasion he remarked that although the 
Mercantile Marine was the most cosmopolitan 
of all services, the men in it, regardless of 
different stations in life, were a wonderful 
band of brothers. 

He had serving under him at the same 
time a nephew of Canon Fleming, a favoured 
friend of her late Majesty Queen Victoria, and 

102 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

the son of a fishing-boat builder, these boys 
cultivating between them a great friendship 
and becoming almost inseparable. I can 
imagine this giving Conrad very real pleasure : 
the nice things of life appealed to and pleased 
him, and what could be nicer than young boys 
in such different stations in life sharing the 
same dangers and living the same hard life 
becoming such boon companions ? The sea 
is a great leveller — always has been and always 
will be. Sailors, more than anyone else, have 
no time for the small things in life. They 
realise that the greatness of the Empire is 
due in a large way to the greatness of their 
own combined efforts, and great they mean to 
keep it. 

He loved a good story in connection with 
the war at sea. One particularly good one 
which was told me, the truth of which I 
cannot vouch for, appealed to him greatly. 
It was of a certain popular temporary Royal 
Naval Reserve officer who was stationed at 
Scapa in command of one of H.M. trawlers. 
This officer had received instructions to take 
his ship to Dundee for dry-docking. As was 
usual when a vessel left the Base for over- 
haul and repairs, her commanding officer was 

10^, 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

commissioned by wine secretaries on board 
different warships to bring back with him 
certain consignments of wines, spirits, and 
tobacco. On this particular occasion he 
neglected to carry out the various commissions, 
and in order to save himself the trouble of 
explanations to the various secretaries entered 
the Flow with the American ensign flying from 
the triatic stay. A signal from the flagship 
demanding the meaning of it brought back 
the reply " dry ship." It should be explained 
that before our American cousins adopted 
Prohibition, wines and spirits were not allowed 
to be served on board United States warships. 

Compass adjusters had some amusing experi- 
ences during the war. To readers conversant 
with magnetism and its effects this story will 
appeal : to those who are not, it is necessary 
to point out that when compasses are adjusted 
they must be in their binnacles on board ship, 
when magnets are placed in positions to 
counteract the effect of iron and steel fittings 
actually within about ten feet of the compass. 

One skipper in command of a trawler 
stationed at Sheerness lacked this elementary 
knowledge, and, finding great difficulty in 
making headlands, very properly decided that 

104 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

his compass must be out. On his next arrival 
in harbour he proceeded to unship it, and 
tucking it under his arm strolled to the office 
of the Commander in Charge of the Compass 
Adjustment Department. On being informed 
that this officer was at the time in the billiard- 
room, our worthy, compass and all, made a bee- 
line for that particular part of the building, 
and finding the commander in the middle of 
an after-lunch game of one hundred up, planted 
his compass on the green cloth with a request 
that it might be adjusted. The roar of 
laughter that went up from the officers present 
completely discomfited the poor skipper ; but 
on matters being explained to him he heartily 
joined in the renewed laughter which followed. 
Another commander had just completed 
adjusting the compass of an American destroyer 
when he politely asked the lieutenant in 
charge if he would kindly lend him a pair of 
binoculars. The lieutenant shouted down the 
forward hatchway, " Anybody down there .? " 
Back came the answer, " Yep." " Well, say," 
continued the lieutenant, " one of you go 
down to my cabin and in the middle drawer 
on the right-hand side you will find a pair of 
binoculars ; bring 'em right along " ; the reply 

105 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

to which was, " It shall be done just exactly 
as you say, lieut." One can imagine the 
difference on board a British warship, where 
a bluejacket would have bounced up a ladder 
two steps at a time and on reaching the top 
would have sprung smartly to attention, 
saluted, and with an " Aye, aye, sir," carried 
out his instructions. There's an old saying, 
" Different ships, different long splices," and 
I suppose it is the same with nationalities, 
" Different countries, different customs." 

I remember one evening in the cuddy talk- 
ing about the pronunciation of English words, 
and how certain words, spelt the same, sound 
differently when differently applied. 

This reminded me of a story I heard of a 
now very distinguished submarine captain 
who, as a lieutenant-commander, while super- 
intending the building of one of our earlier 
submarines at a well-known northern ship- 
yard, appropriated all the lead he could find 
strewn about the yard. In those experimental 
days trimming meant everything to a sub- 
marine commander, and lead, as the most 
convenient form of movable ballast, owing to 
its weight, was for this reason much sought 
after. In due course the submarine was 

io6 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

launched, and at the luncheon in honour of 
the event many complimentary speeches were 
made, special reference being given to the 
great advance made in the utility of under- 
vsrater craft, due in no small way to the pluck 
and energy of, among other officers, the 
commander in question. The chairman, in 
proposing the health of the officer, informed 
him that, in order to signify the Directors' 
appreciation of the valuable services rendered 
by him in the construction of what was then 
the finest submarine afloat, of his valuable 
suggestions gained from his previous experi- 
ence, and of the great cordiality and harmony 
which existed between the submarine officers 
and the officials of the yard, they had decided 
to present to the commander a motto, to be 
considered his own personal property and to 
be used, they hoped, on board all ships under 
his personal command, and on his retirement 
it was also hoped that some place would be 
found for it in his home. On the completion 
of his speech the chairman displayed to the 
assembled guests an ebony board, beautifully 
engraved, and in brass block letters the 
motto : 

" I NEED NO LEAD." 
107 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

The commander blushingly accepted the 
compliment and the pronunciation of the 
word as it was intended, but deep down in his 
heart he knew that the other pronunciation 
must have suggested to the amused Directors 
the idea of the " motto " and its presentation. 

It is now well known that during the early 
part of the war British mines were very in- 
different affairs, and did not by any means do 
what was expected of them. A story in con- 
nection with this was another which amused 
Conrad, although he doubted, and perhaps with 
good reason, the authenticity of it. A certain 
British merchant steamer arrived at Hull from 
some Continental port, and was met by a 
naval officer, who asked for his chart showing 
the route he had taken. On being informed 
with some heat that he had crossed the British 
minefield, the master, with that awful feeling 
that he would be " shot at dawn," was trying 
to think of some excuse when his mate, who 
was standing close at hand, chipped in with 
" Well, sir, that accounts for the bumping 
last night," which, naturally, did not help 
matters. This story, though a good one, 
should be taken with a certain amount of 
reserve, as I know to my cost, for later I had 

io8 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

a painful experience in a British-laid sub- 
marine minefield at the entrance to one of 
our principal Naval Bases. It happened as 
follows : — 

It was expected that enemy submarines 
would attempt to get inside the outer defences, 
and I was instructed to take six drifters towing 
mine nets and station them in such a position 
to make their entry almost impossible. I was 
directed to run a line of towed mine nets 
inside the minefield, and I pointed out at the 
time that the ebb-tide would in all probability 
take the vessels towing the nets across the 
field. I was told, however, this must be 
risked. Everything happened as I anticipated. 
When the ebb-tide did make, we were carried 
right over the mines, the exploding of which 
was to us like " hell let loose." We were all 
very much shaken ; not a pane of glass was 
left in any of the vessels ; some of them were 
almost lifted out of the water, and two leaked 
so badly that it was necessary to put them into 
dry dock for caulking and other repairs. 

Another story that Conrad liked showed 
the friendly rivalry between commanding 
officers of destroyers and trawlers. One of 
the latter, commanded by an R.N.R. officer, 

109 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

was one day patrolling about twenty miles off 
the Scottish coast and observed the periscope 
of a submarine. He at once wirelessed the 
information to his senior naval officer, which 
message was intercepted by a destroyer com- 
mander, who at once proceeded at top speed 
to the position given. This greatly angered 
the trawler officer, who knew that as long as a 
destroyer was in the vicinity a submarine would 
not come to the surface. The other was his 
senior in rank, and he could not order him 
away, and what looked like a good chance of 
an engagement was fast slipping away when a 
brilliant idea occurred to him. He called for 
his signalman and wrote out the following 
signal, to be sent by wireless to the senior naval 
officer: — " Call your dog off, frightening the 
birds." The signal was rightly interpreted 
and the destroyer recalled, thus leaving the 
trawler a free hand to deal with the submarine, 
which later in the evening it damaged, though 
there was, unfortunately, no conclusive proof 
that it had been destroyed. 

Of course our general conversation centred 
around our experiences at sea. I was proud 
of the fact that I made my first voyage in the 
year 1887 under Jock Muir in the full-rigged 

no 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

ship Invercargill of the Shaw, Savill & Albion 
Line. He was known as one of the hardest 
cases and finest seamen sailing the seas — a 
broad-shouldered, immensely strong,niahogany- 
skinned, brown-bearded man, who put the 
fear of death into everyone sailing under him. 
He cracked on sail until the last possible 
moment, and in heavy weather he kept men 
standing by the halyards, with instructions 
never to lower away without orders. As long 
as the masts would stand he carried on, and 
if one sail blew away into shreds he bent 
another immediately, seldom waiting for 
daylight. 

We made the passage from the East India 
Docks to Wellington, New Zealand, in seventy- 
one days, often averaging, when running our 
easting down, three hundred and twenty 
nautical miles in twenty-four hours. 

Old Muir was a terror with slackers, and 
it was a word and a blow to any man who 
came up against him. With us boys he had 
a different and more effective form of punish- 
ment. Sometimes he sent us aloft and made 
us crow from the truck before allowing us to 
have our next meal. At other times he would 
make us ride the spanker boom for a whole 

III 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

dog watch. In spite of all this we boys liked 
him ; he told us it was for our good and we 
believed him ; and although he was hard on 
us himself, it was Heaven help anyone else on 
board who as much as looked sideways at us. 

A former apprentice who served under him 
in the still earlier eighties, and now a much- 
decorated Captain R.N., had some wonderful 
tales to tell of old Jock in the hivercargill. 
They left Lyttleton, New Zealand, for Astoria, 
California, and after a record passage arrived 
at the entrance of the harbour to find the place 
blocked with shipping which had been unable 
to cross the bar owing to the low depth of 
water. Muir, disregarding orders to anchor, 
sailed the Invercargill across the bar and along- 
side the wharf, and had no sooner made his 
ship fast than dozens of boarding-house crimps 
swarmed on board with the object of persuad- 
ing the men to desert the ship, under promise 
of more congenial work on shore at increased 
rates of wages. Most of the hands were aloft 
furling the sails, and in their eagerness to get 
the men for their own particular boarding- 
houses many of the crimps followed them 
aloft, ostensibly to assist them with their work. 
But Jock Muir knew differently. He walked 

112 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

along the deck, damned the mate for allow- 
ing them on board, and hailing the heftiest 
crimp on the foreyard asked him what the hell 
he was doing up there. The boarding-house 
runner, with that want of politeness one would 
associate with his class, asked him what the 
devil it had to do with him, whereupon Jock, 
with a well-directed shot from his revolver, 
put a bullet through the softest part of the 
crimp's anatomy, bringing him with a quick 
slide down the rigging to the deck, where he 
doubled up squealing and bleeding like a pig. 
When the shot rang out the others asked who 
the skipper was, and on learning it was none 
other than the famous Jock Muir legged it up 
the wharf and were no more seen. Later, the 
police called with a stretcher for the wounded 
man and carted him away, no questions being 
asked. 

The hivercargill loaded at Astoria for 
London, and, before leaving, two elks were 
sent on board for passage to England. They 
were very young, and became pets of the crew 
on the voyage. Three days after the ship's 
arrival in the East India Docks Jock Muir 
found them still on board, and without waiting 
any instructions from his owners gave orders 
H 113 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

to the mate that the boys were to take them 
to the Zoological Gardens. My Captain R.N- 
friend was one of these. Ropes carefully 
padded were passed round the necks of each 
animal, a short lizard rope being attached so 
as to keep them together. Four boys in their 
brass-bound uniforms set out with them early 
in the forenoon, and as they passed up the 
East India Dock Road a great crowd collected 
and followed them as far as Aldgate. The 
animals, to show their friendly disposition, 
would put their noses into the pockets of any 
person coming near enough to them ; others 
fed them with biscuits and other scraps, and 
the farther they went the fatter they got. By 
the time they reached St Paul's they were 
completely blown out. Passing through some 
parks the animals saw green grass for the first 
time for four months, and out of this park 
they simply would not go. They laid down 
to it, and all the coaxing in the world would 
not induce them to move. Eventually the 
boys sat down with them and waited events. 
After some hours, during which time the elks 
nibbled until they could nibble no more, 
further persuasions were brought to bear, this 
time with better effect, and again they wended 

114 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

their way Zoowards. It was eleven p.m. when 
they reached the gates, which were opened by 
a keeper or other person in authority, who at 
that time of the night refused to accept them. 
The boys, however, had not served under Jock 
Muir for nothing ; they had been taught that 
difficulties were only things that had to be 
overcome, so, pushing the animals inside, they 
bolted for their lives. 

We talked late into the night, not retiring 
until well past midnight. 



115 



CHAPTER X 

For the first time the weather seemed to be 
really moderating, and the air was compara- 
tively mild. Towards early morning the 
wind quite died away, and we were more or 
less becalmed. The sun shone brilliantly, and 
the poor fellows below deck expressed a great 
desire to come up for an airing, see the sun 
and breathe the warm air. Of course they 
were always privileged to do so one or two at 
a time, but on this particular morning no one 
man saw why he should be below deck at all. 

At eight o'clock the wind went to the east- 
ward, so the vessel was put on the port tack and 
headed to the S.S.E. We had been crawling 
along at about two knots when an object was 
observed on the starboard bow — a mere speck 
at first, which gradually grew, though assuming 
no real size at all. Osborne had his eyes 
glued to his Zeiss glasses, with his head just 
above the gunwale. " By Gad, sir, it is ! " 
he exclaimed, " and heading right for us." 

" A submarine ? " I asked. 
ii6 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

" Yes," he said, and his face lit up as if he 
had been left a legacy. 

Conrad was standing aft on the port side, 
his face full of smiles, thankful that his 
prophecies had proved to be true. He had 
come out with us to experience a real live 
battle, and not the discomforts to which we 
had been subjected. 

Word was at once passed along, and one by 
one the guns' crews came up the hatchway 
and stole under cover of the gunwale to their 
stations. Rampling warmed up his engines all 
ready for running, and stood at the bottom of 
the cuddy hatchway waiting for orders — the 
only soul on board left below, and who groused 
only because he would not see the fun. 

The wireless being down, there was nothing 
for Musgrove to do, and as he passed Conrad 
with a camera the latter asked him where he 
was going. 

"Up aloft," replied he, " to photograph the 
action." 

I, however, stopped him, and told him to 
assist the " panic party " if necessary. 

Everything went like clockwork. Guns 
were cast loose and loaded ; a plentiful supply 
of ammunition was passed up from below; 

117 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

and the men were in great spirits. It was 
here I gave Conrad the first and only direct 
order during the cruise. 

" You," I said, " go down and bring up all 
the confidential books and take charge of 
them. If ordered to do so, throw them 
overboard." 

Conrad obeyed with alacrity, and stood by 
for any other orders which might be given. 
The sailing mate walked along the decks 
behind the guns' crews, and in a very cheery 
voice said : " Knives for those who want 
them " — these for cutting away the pit-prop 
disguises, leaving the guns free to work. 

On and on came the submarine, making to 
cross our bows. The guns were brought to the 
ready, with the crews " closed up " waiting for 
the order to cut pit-props — "Independent 
firing, carry on." 

I was standing by Conrad, and remarked that 
she would cross our bows and attack on the port 
side in the rays of the sun. At about seven hun- 
dred yards I examined her carefully, but could 
see no sign of life on deck, though I knew 
from my former experience with submarines 
that an officer was hidden away behind the 
weather cloth on the conning tower. Her 

ii8 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

ensign was flying over the stern, but owing 
to the bad state it was in I could not make 
out its nationality. 

The guns' crews were growing impatient, 
and I gently reminded them that all rounds 
must be hits, otherwise she would submerge 
and torpedo us ; but they were confident, and 
smiled back their assurances. 

She crossed our bows to the port side at a 
distance of about four hundred yards, and it 
was then that we made out the ensign to be 
British, and from her build beam on to be one 
of the G class, evidently bound for the Baltic. 

I don't know how I gave the order to 
"secure." The reaction of the intense excite- 
ment told immediately, and the feeling of 
utter depression was indescribable. I have 
never seen such looks of disappointment on 
men's faces ; not a word was spoken during 
the " secure." I looked to Conrad for con- 
solation, but got none, as he was as sad as any 
of us. I noticed then he was keeping watch 
over the confidential books, and suddenly 
remembered the order I had given him. It 
occurred to me that perhaps I should not 
have sent him, but at the time I forgot his 
individuality. I only knew that I was in 

119 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

command, and that everybody else was there 
to obey, and when I found him at the end of 
it all still waiting for orders I realised that 
in giving Joseph Conrad an order I had done 
what no other living man could have done. 
We laughed over it afterwards, and when he 
insisted on returning them to the cuddy we 
laughed still more. 

He told me later that on his way from the 
cuddy with the books he twitted Rampling 
on being out of the fun, and that Rampling 
assured him that sinking submarines was 
nothing new to him; which remark was taken 
at its worth, for the man was never lost for 
an answer, and this one given was meant only 
as an excuse for not seeing this particular 
action. 

Conrad was, as usual, the first one to cheer 
us up. He condoled with us on our dis- 
appointment and consoled us for having had 
an opportunity of experiencing the real thing 
up to a certain point. Anything, he said, 
that had been overlooked could be put right, 
and everything we had done might possibly 
be improved on ; adding that on our home- 
ward passage we should be sure to fall in with 



something. 



120 




11. M.S. RKADY — KECAl >rEr) 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

It was as much the way he said things as 
what he actually said that was so convincing. 
One believed him instinctively and trusted 
him implicitly, and after this expression of 
opinion we settled down to our work, our 
thoughts full of "what might have been." 

During the line spell of weather we ex- 
amined the spars and overhauled the sails and 
rigging. Osborne again suggested altering her 
nationality for luck, but I decided to remain 
Norwegian, and if I were Norwegian, every- 
body else had to be, for the time being. I, 
however, told Osborne that if the next sub- 
marine we met proved to be British, we should 
all turn Danes or Swedes, whichever he liked 
the better. This pleased him, and settled the 
matter. 

Some days later we received a wireless 
message informing us that enemy submarines 
were laying mines off Grimsby, and that we 
were to cruise in the vicinity. The wind 
being favourable, we accordingly bore away 
in that direction. We could hardly expect to 
find one on the surface, in close proximity to 
the land, so that our only chance of sighting 
one would be before dawn, either on her way 
to the scene of her activities, or returning to 

121 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

her Base after completing operations. For 
this reason we steered to get on a line joining 
the geographical positions of Grimsby and 
Kiel, before heading for the English coast. 

The weather remained fine, though very- 
cold, and instead of playing cards at night we 
paced the deck and talked. Conrad told me 
that when war broke out he was in Vienna 
with his wife and two boys, and had the 
greatest difficulty in getting permission to 
leave the country. Mr Penfield, the American 
Minister, had taken charge of British affairs, 
and to him he appealed to use his influence 
with the Austrian Foreign Office to secure 
passports for himself and family. Mr Penfield 
received Conrad with the greatest cordiality, 
and spared no pains in interceding on his 
behalf, but, as it appeared at the time, all to 
no purpose, when the strangest of all things 
happened. 

Conrad was at the Legation and in con- 
versation with the Minister when a telegram 
arrived from our own Foreign Office request- 
ing his Excellency to inform the Austrian 
Minister for Foreign Affairs that the British 
Government had decided to release the Prince 
and Princess of Zu Solm, both of whom had 

122 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

been arrested at Cape Town, and to allow them 
to return under safe conduct to Austria. The 
American Minister at once conveyed this 
information to the Austrian Foreign Minister, 
making at the same time another request 
for Conrad's passports. The occasion was 
auspicious indeed, and shortly afterwards 
Conrad, with his wife and two sons, found 
their way to Genoa, where they took passage 
on board a Dutch steamer bound for England, 
and in due course arrived at and disembarked 
at Gravesend. 

The wind remained favourable, and during 
the night increased in strength, sending us 
along at a good seven knots. My decision 
to steer so as to intercept submarines leaving 
or returning to Germany put new heart into 
the crew, as they, like myself, were dead 
against returning to our Base without what 
a sporting member of the crew described 
as a " bag." We still had a good supply 
of provisions left, though all tinned stuff and 
hard biscuits, and had saved a good deal of 
rain water for drinking purposes, so that we 
could hang about for a considerable time on 
the off-chance of luck coming our way. But 
what we did grouse about was the shortness 

123 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

of daylight — only eight hours out of the 
twenty-four, with sixteen hours' utter blackness, 
during which time a dozen submarines could 
have passed us without being seen. On one 
or two occasions Musgrove picked up German 
Telefunken messages, but as they were in code 
they conveyed nothing to us. The messages 
were generally weak, indicating that the 
senders were far away, so that the chances 
of our falling in with them were small. 
Musgrove was a wonderful little fellow. I 
have seen him night after night during heavy 
weather sitting in his little hut, knee-deep in 
water, with the receivers to his ears, waiting 
to catch any Morse signals which might be 
in the air, and then up aloft all day. I don't 
believe he ever slept, as when he had absolutely 
nothing else to do he was teaching Conrad 
wireless, both in the working of the instru- 
ments and the Morse code. Once, during a 
gale, when poor Musgrove was trying to get 
his instruments together after they had been 
knocked endways by a heavy sea, with 
Conrad as a very interested onlooker, I asked 
him what progress Mr Conrad was making 
under his tuition. Musgrove's reply was : 
" He knows 'it now from A to Z, sir." The 

124 




A STRONG BREEZE 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

same afternoon Conrad wrote on a sheet of 
paper : — 



oid^r^ 









Xvi ki« II .fi .^^A^mi;? .^lu^'vis^, ctt ^£ i/ Ifyll?^ ' i) '(j) 



Musgrove and I often had long chats 
together, and towards the end of the cruise 
he asked me if I thought Mr Conrad would 
write about our experiences. Strangely enough, 
it never occurred to me that he would, 
perhaps for the reason that, had he intended 
to do so, he would have mentioned it ; also 
that throughout the voyage I never once saw 
him make a single note of anything. No 
doubt, Conrad, on his return home, could have 
written a most descriptive article on our 
venture, which would have been read with 
avidity by his countless admirers ; but the 
tale he would have told would have had to 

125 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

include himself, and Conrad's natural modesty 
would have prevented that. Besides, we were 
only doing what thousands of others were doing, 
only in a different and more experimental way. 
I have since read that Admiral Sir Douglas 
Brownrigg hoped he would do so, and must 
again quote from his " Indiscretions of the 
Naval Censor " : 

"It was in the autumn of 19 17 that I 
came to the conclusion that it was time the 
doings of the wonderful Mercantile Navy 
should be written up, by which I do not 
mean slobbered over, or ' boosted,' but written 
up by somebody whose heart would be in the 
job, and who would understand the hearts 
and minds of the Merchant Navy, as well as 
those of the public. I therefore approached 
Mr Joseph Conrad, and he very kindly came 
up and saw me, though he said he was not a 
writer to the Press. I was overjoyed at secur- 
ing his co-operation, and we fixed up an ex- 
tensive programme for him, and he travelled all 
over the country, and had the free entry into 
every port and every ship in which the Royal 
and Mercantile Navies were co-operating." 

I never asked Conrad if he intended writing 
126 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

about his experience with us, so was unable 
to satisfy Musgrove's curiosity. 

One evening, when Conrad was in a re- 
miniscent mood, he told me that when sitting 
for his Masters' Certificate before Mr Sterry, 
a London Board of Trade Examiner, he was 
asked by him how he would " rig a jury 
rudder," and straightway told Conrad how he 
himself rigged one in a ship he commanded, 
when carrying troops to the Crimea. In the 
circumstances there was nothing for Conrad 
to do but to agree that Mr Sterry's was the 
best way. Examiners in those days had their 
own pet method of carrying out different 
evolutions, and what would do for one would 
not always do for the other ; so that at the 
navigation schools it was always impressed on 
us that if we appeared before Captain So-and- 
so we were to do things this way, and before 
Captain somebody else the other way. Conrad, 
doubtless, had a different and possibly a better 
and simpler way of rigging a jury rudder, but 
it was not policy to say so. 

There was a certain examiner before 
whom Conrad appeared (and I also at a later 
date) who had the reputation of making 
young candidates talk and talk until they tied 

127 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

themselves in knots, and then " failing " 
them. He was out to fail as many as he could, 
and through sheer nervousness many aspirants 
to masters' and mates' certificates were sent 
down. Conrad and I both survived his efforts, 
and passed our examinations with credit. 

I think we discussed the " Merchant Ser- 
vice in the War " more than any other sub- 
ject. It was a source of delight to Conrad to 
hear of anything to the credit of the types of 
men he had served with. He readily under- 
stood how easily officers and men of the 
Merchant Service could adapt themselves 
to war conditions : all their lives they were 
fighting the elements, and their discipline and 
natural courage suited them for the purpose 
for which they were employed. 

The first single ship action of the war 
between the Carmania and the Cap Trafalgar 
was an instance of this, as, although the ship 
was commanded by a very distinguished 
officer of the Royal Navy, she was almost 
entirely officered by lieutenant - commanders 
and lieutenants of the R.N.R. 

The temporary officers of the R.N.R. were 
taken straight out of the Merchant Service, 
and without as much as a day's training were 

128 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

given very responsible commands, at high rates 
of pay, added to which they had greater 
advantages of attaining distinction over the 
more highly trained officer of their own rank 
in the Royal Navy, who had, in most cases, to 
be content with a subordinate appointment in 
a battleship, cruiser, destroyer, or any other 
class of war vessel, with the exception of 
submarines. 

Conrad was delighted to hear of the good 
feeling prevailing between the two Services, 
and agreed that any previous misunderstanding 
was due to the fact that they had never before 
had an opportunity of knowing each other. 
Now they were sharing the same perils, doing 
exactly the same work and all with the same 
object. No man had a greater admiration for 
the merchant captain than the naval officer : 
he knew almost better than anybody else that 
the carriage of food, guns, ammunition and 
other supplies depended on the courage and 
tenacity of these hardy old seafarers keeping 
the sea. Submarines and mines had no terror 
for him ; and although during the early period 
of the war he had no gun to hit back with, 
he sailed the seven seas rejoicing, and never 
missed a tide. 

I 129 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Conrad, too, was very much interested in 
the training of the permanent Royal Naval 
Reserve officer — how up to 1904 he was not 
allowed to attain higher rank than that of 
lieutenant; how during the intervening years 
the restrictions had been broken down, and 
that at the time there were officers serving who 
held the ranks of lieutenant - commanders, 
commanders, captains and commodores. 
Decorations had come their way, some of 
the more senior being awarded Companion- 
ships of the Bath (one has since been made a 
Knight Commander of the Most Excellent 
Order of St Michael and St George, and 
two Knights of the Most Excellent Order of 
the British Empire. His Majesty the King 
has also graciously approved of two officers 
being selected as his Aides-de-Camp in rota- 
tion of seniority). Great strides had been 
made in ten years : the two Services realised 
more than ever that they were interdependent, 
and that henceforth in any common cause they 
were a band of brothers. 

We also discussed the fighting qualities of 
the Navies of other Powers, and the part 
played by Japan in her sea fight with Russia. 
We talked of Admiral Togo, the Japanese 

130 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Admiralissimo, having received his early train- 
ing in H.M.S. Worcester. This reminded me 
of two Japanese naval stories. 

In 1902 I was serving as a lieutenant in 
H.M.S. Empress of India, then doing duty 
as Guardship at Queenstown, when one fine 
summer afternoon one of the latest types of 
Japanese battleships entered the harbour and 
anchored close astern of us, her stay in port 
extending to a week or ten days. We had 
one of the finest bands in the Service, and 
each morning as the Colours were hoisted the 
National Anthem was played, followed by the 
National Anthem of Japan. On the fourth 
night after her arrival we invited the captain 
and officers to dinner. Captain Henry Louis 
Fleet, R.N. (a brother of Mr Rutland Barring- 
ton, the famous old Savoyard), taking the head 
of the table. When the wine had been served 
Captain Fleet proposed the health of his 
Majesty the King : the band played the 
National Anthem and the toast was drunk, 
all officers remaining seated by right of a 
privilege accorded them by, I think, one of 
the Georges. Rumour has it that when 
dining on board some ship or other the King 
in question bumped his head against one of 

131 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

the beams in the then low-ceilinged ward 
rooms, and said that the loyalty of the officers 
of the Royal Navy was sufficiently assured to 
drink his health seated. A few minutes later 
Captain Fleet rose and proposed the health of 
his Majesty the Emperor of Japan, all officers 
rising. The band played the Japanese National 
Anthem, at the end of which each officer, lift- 
ing his glass, drank to the health of his Majesty. 
When quiet again reigned, the Japanese captain, 
who spoke perfect English, asked Captain Fleet 
if he would tell him the name of the tune which 
had just been played. Our captain's consterna- 
tion may be imagined when our distinguished 
visitor assured him that he had not heard it 
before ! Our bandmaster, an Italian, was sent 
for, who explained that to the best of his 
belief it was the National Anthem of Japan. 
Unhappily it was not. Apologies and ex- 
planations followed, and a band sergeant was 
dispatched to the Japanese battleship for the 
real score, which, when played, was so entirely 
different that one can only wonder that such 
a mistake could have been made. 

The other story concerns a Japanese battle- 
ship which, long previous to the Great War, 
had anchored at The Nore. On her arrival 

132 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

the Commander-in-Chief gave orders that 
during the stay of the vessel in harbour 
Gilbert and Sullivan's famous comic opera 
The Mikado was not to be played by the bands 
of ships under his orders. One evening, 
whilst captains and officers were going about 
their usual duties on board their various vessels, 
the strains of a familiar tune floated across the 
waters ; they could scarcely believe their ears : 
it was The Flowers that bloom in the Springs Tra 
la la. Great Heavens, thought everyone, 
which ship had dared to disobey such an 
important order ? Officers of watches and 
signalmen gazed round and looked at one 
another in bewilderment. The laugh that 
went round the fleet may be imagined when 
it was discovered that the opera in question 
was being played by none other than the band 
of the Japanese battleship ! 

As the cruise was slowly drawing to a close 
I must candidly confess that I thought more 
of losing Conrad's companionship than I did 
of sinking submarines. Naturally, the latter 
was never out of my thoughts, but the other 
feeling predominated. I knew I should soon 
be out in the ship again, and dreaded to think 
how different everything would be without 

133 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

his company. One evening I gave expression 
to these thoughts, and added that I should be 
very sorry to think we should not meet again. 
Conrad, however, put me at my ease by say- 
ing that, if we survived, he would always be 
delighted to welcome me in his home, and 
that it would give him a very real pleasure to 
present me to his wife. Then, turning to 
Osborne and Moodie, he extended the same 
invitation. Naturally this pleased us all greatly. 

That same night I asked Conrad what first 
induced him to take up literary work. He 
was silent for some minutes, and then said, as 
if he had considered my question : " Well, 
Commander, I was a long time on shore." 
What he meant by that I don't know to this 
day, and as he did not enlighten me, I did not 
ask. 

It is a curious thing that followers of the 
sea seldom or never betray the slightest curi- 
osity in connection with the antecedents or 
private affairs of each other. I have been 
shipmates for twelve months at a time with 
men without knowing whether they were 
married or single, where they came from, or 
what their future intentions were. I suppose 
it was partly for the reason that I was not 

134 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

interested ; I could have asked, but there was 
always something about it all which pre- 
vented me, and there was always this some- 
thing which prevented others from knowing 
any more than I did. Sailors are not com- 
municative about their homes or their affairs ; 
they know each other's names, and that appears 
to be good enough to go on with. 

I candidly confess I was most curious about 
Conrad. I wanted to ask him hundreds of 
things that I would greatly like to have 
known, but couldn't. Had he been purely an 
author, or any other kind of landsman, I should 
have had no hesitation ; but he was a seaman 
as well : I could never get away from that, 
and so my tongue was tied, and I had to rest 
content with what he was pleased to tell me. 
Perhaps it was that he had told me so much 
and interested me so much that, like Oliver 
Twist, I wanted more. Anyway, I was never 
the first to rise from the cuddy table during 
our long talks after supper, and willingly 
would I have remained, even to daybreak, had 
it not been that there was always a possibility 
of much to do on the morrow. 

We had not played cards since falling in 
with the British submarine, and three nights 

135 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

before we made the coast Osborne suggested 
that play should be resumed. Conrad readily 
agreed, and we played until it was time to 
man the pumps. Osborne brought the card 
book out, and as far as I can remember the 
biggest loss was not more than two shillings, 
so that the play was throughout very even. 
The wind remained in the east, varying from 
north-east to south-east, and we were not 
obliged to do any beating to windward. The 
weather, too, held good, which was a blessing 
after all the atrocious weather we had experi- 
enced on the outer passage. Night sleep was 
less disturbed, and we felt much fresher for 
the benefit of it. 



136 



CHAPTER XI 

The following morning it was Osborne's turn 
to take over charge of the deck at six o'clock, 
and when daylight broke he called me to 
report that a submarine was in sight. Conrad 
and I turned out immediately, jumped into 
our sea boots, and were on deck in an instant. 
Osborne had turned everybody out, and having 
handed me his binoculars superintended the 
clearing away of the guns. I turned to speak 
to Conrad, but found that he had not waited 
for orders, but had bolted down to the cuddy 
for the confidential books, and a moment or 
two later reported to me for orders. He 
remarked, with a smile of satisfaction, that 
surely our luck would be in this time. He 
was fearfully anxious that this should be the 
case. Alas ! We were again doomed to dis- 
appointment, as she, too, proved to be British. 
I shouted down to Rampling that he could 
let his engines cool down. " What .? " replied 
he, " another Britisher? " and when I answered 
in the affirmative, I heard Rampling muttering 

137 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

" My Gawd, and some people ask, ' What 
is the Navy doing ? ' " 

We had a good beam wind, and with all 
sail set were fast approaching the coast. Dur- 
ing the afternoon a British airship crossed 
and recrossed over us, and as it descended 
to scrutinise us the better we could see its 
occupants were examining us closely through 
binoculars. We were still flying the Nor- 
wegian ensign, and as we were not sure whether 
she could see our guns or not, we brought up 
our largest-size white ensign, and spreading it 
out flat on the deck pointed to it ; on which 
the airship made off for the coast. Later, we 
learnt that she reported us to her headquarters 
as a suspicious vessel. 

Just before dark we sighted the English 
coast, but knowing that we could do nothing 
during the night, and in order to keep clear 
of shipping, we stood out to sea until daylight. 

The wind was light and variable, with 
a smooth sea, so we just sailed about, altering 
our courses so as to bring us at daylight to 
a position about five miles east of Grimsby, as 
we thought it unlikely that an enemy sub- 
marine would be on the surface much inside 
that distance. 

138 




AIRSHIP WHICH REI'OKIKD US AS A SUSPICIOUS VKSSKI. 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

We remained on deck until ten p.m., then 
sat in the cuddy till midnight, talking, as 
sailors always will, of their sea experiences. 

Conrad listened rather than talked on this 
particular night, and was interested in my 
Klondyke experiences in 1898, and of the 
shooting of Soapy Smith, a notorious Alaskan 
highwayman, which I witnessed in Skagway, 
a small port at the foot of the White and 
Chilcoot Passes, over which one had to climb 
to get to Dawson City. Osborne, too, had 
some thrilling experiences to tell him, all of 
which he greatly enjoyed. 

At daylight we sighted a submarine about 
i^ miles on our starboard bow, and altered 
course in her direction. The wind was very 
light at the time, so we made little headway. 
Before we could get near enough, even to 
make out her nationality, a cloud of smoke 
appeared from the entrance to the H umber, out 
of which emerged four destroyers, steaming 
at top speed in the submarine's direction, 
forced her to submerge, and she was lost to 
us. Had we been left to it, and had she 
remained on the surface, we should, no doubt, 
have got her ; but our chance was spoilt, our 
optimism reduced to a minus quantity, and 

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AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

feeling that our luck was dead out, I sent a 
wireless message to Granton asking permission 
to return to harbour. This being approved, I 
headed away for Flamborough Head. 

The wind increased very slightly, but the 
glass was falling, and as heavy clouds were 
gathering I felt that we were in for a bad night. 

Towards evening we sighted minesweeping 
trawlers to the north, so steered in shore so as 
to intercept them. I suggested to Conrad 
that he might like to land in the vicinity, and 
so shorten his train journey from the north to 
his home. He at first wouldn't hear of it, as 
he thought we might still have a chance of a 
scrap ; but I held out little hope, and in the 
end he decided to take advantage of my offer. 

As the minesweepers closed on us I made a 
signal to the senior officer of the unit informing 
him that I wished to communicate with him. 
On receiving this, to my surprise he signalled 
to the other vessels of his unit to spread, and 
they took up positions far apart from one 
another. I then signalled requesting him to 
be good enough to land a passenger from my 
ship, also to send a boat for this purpose. We 
were still under the Norwegian flag, which, 
naturally, made the officer in charge take every 

140 




TKAWLKR WHICH LANDED MR. CONRAD AT 
BRIDLINC.TON 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

possible precaution ; so that when he sent 
a boat alongside with armed men under the 
command of a lieutenant, the astonishment of 
that officer, on stepping over the gangway and 
finding the vessel armed as she was, may be 
imagined. He looked hurriedly aloft at the 
ensign, to make sure he hadn't made any mis- 
take, and even when I had introduced myself 
he seemed doubtful. Conrad was an amused 
spectator of all this, and I must say I enjoyed 
it not a little myself. My invitation to the 
officer to descend to the cuddy was not readily 
accepted, so once again the confidential books 
were sent for, and these reassured our visitor, 
who thereupon signalled to his senior that 
everything was in order. He then informed 
us of the airship's signal which they had 
intercepted, and how on sighting us they had 
thought that they had really fallen in with 
the strange suspicious craft. Not knowing 
our armament, the senior officer decided not 
to have his vessels in what he described as a 
"bunch," lest we should open fire from guns 
heavier than their modest six-pounders. The 
senior officer, having signalled his willingness 
to land Conrad, immediately proceeded to re- 
form his unit, during which time we were 

141 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

regaled with the latest news, the officer also 
very kindly sending his boat to collect news- 
papers for us. 

Soon afterwards Conrad bade us good-bye, 
every man coming up from below to bid him 
farewell, and as he passed over the side there 
was not a soul on board who did not feel that 
he had lost not only a very real friend, but 
also a very good shipmate. 

Our vessel, which had been " hauled to the 
wind " with the fore-yard aback, was then 
headed to the north, and in the twilight — 
both going in opposite directions — we soon 
lost sight of each other. 

The wind increased during the first watch, 
and at midnight was blowing very hard. At 
four A.M. Osborne called me and told me that 
the whole of the North Sea was in the cuddy, 
and certainly there was a certain amount of it. 
Between that time and our arrival at Granton 
we experienced our very worst weather, and I 
felt somewhat relieved that Conrad had missed 
it. Our light square sails and upper staysails 
were blown to ribbons, and our rigging badly 
damaged. 

On nearing May Island at the entrance 
to the Firth of Forth we unshipped all our 

142 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

disguises, unmounted our guns, painted out the 
Norwegian ensigns on the bows and quarters 
of the hull, and ran up the red ensign, in 
order to deceive any neutral vessels which we 
might pass or overhaul in the Firth. 

There was a howling gale behind us and 
with the flood tide we went along at a great 
pace. At the Examination Anchorage we 
were challenged and directed to proceed to 
Leith, but on satisfying the officer-in-charge 
were allowed to proceed. Then came the 
tricky work of manoeuvring between the fifty 
odd vessels at anchor in order to pick up a 
sheltered berth, the hauling to the wind, and 
eventually, with the helm hard-a-lee, the main- 
sail to windward and the fore-yard aback, we 
dropped our anchor after certainly a novel and 
experimental experience. It was nearly forty- 
eight hours later before the weather moderated 
sufficiently to allow us to land. 

Conrad certainly left a great impression on 
me, and this, I know, was quite apart from 
that subconscious influence which the study 
of his writings for years previous had had 
upon me. To me, having lived with him in 
fair weather and in foul, the thought always 
in my mind was that he could never have 

143 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

remained merely a seaman ; his genius and 
temperament forbade this. The quality of 
his brain being of so alert and virile a nature, 
even the constant warring with the elements 
would not have given him sufficient outlet 
for his creative powers. The poetry of the 
man's mind required the possibility of constant 
expression. His characters are live people, 
and in my old sailing days I met them 
frequently. He describes them, not only as 
he saw them, but as they saw themselves, and 
also as they saw others. He read men's minds 
and knew their innermost thoughts. He 
revealed beauty as he saw it in language 
which his marvellous genius has enriched. 
He, in all his works, extols all that is great 
and wonderful in life, and portrays not in 
words but by inference the true beauty of 
righteousness. 

To a student of psychology Conrad would 
have been a wonderful study. He was, to me, 
intellectually head and shoulders over any man 
I had ever met. His charm, his ideas, his 
outlook on life generally were to me wonder- 
ful, and much as it puzzled me then, it has 
since puzzled me still more how he, a Polish 
aristocrat, should have adopted as a profession 

144 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

the sea, with all the cramped hardships of 
forty years ago in pilot vessels out of Marseilles, 
in small sailing craft in the Mediterranean, 
and later in the crack flyers out of England. 
A sailor spending his life on the waste of 
waters is naturally a dreamer. Hours at the 
wheel, with every stitch of canvas set in 
the trade winds, with little to do but keep the 
weather leach of the mizzen-royal shivering, 
or at the weather ear-ring when reefing a 
topsail, the sailor is always the same, always 
dreaming ; and what visions Conrad, with his 
great imagination, must have conjured up in 
these varied and trying circumstances ! 

I had been wondering whether I should 
have the good fortune to meet him again 
when I was reassured by a letter which arrived 
at the Base from him, and was sent on board 
(the weather had not sufficiently moderated 
to make it desirable for me to land). He 
thanked me for what he was good enough to 
describe as " my true seaman-like hospitality," 
and repeated the wish that I should visit him, 
asking me at the same time to extend his 
invitation to certain other members of the 
crew. Then followed an account of his land- 
ing at Bridlington, and the kindness he had 
K 145 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

received from the minesweeping officers, 
whom he invited to breakfast with him at his 
hotel on the following morning ; of the visit 
of a police officer during the meal asking him 
to explain his landing from a sailing vessel 
flying a foreign flag, and his satisfactory replies ; 
and, finally, more grateful remarks on the 
kindness and consideration shown to him both 
by myself and those serving under me, ending 
up with the ten words quoted in my opening 
chapter, " The Brotherhood of the Sea is no 
mere empty phrase." 

I made two more trips in command of the 
brigantine, each extending over three weeks, 
but without any results. It was thought that 
she was known to the German submarine 
commanders, who let her pass on her way. I 
then returned to minesweeping, and Osborne, 
on my strong recommendation, was appointed 
in command. 

In the meantime other sailing vessels had 
been fitted out, all of them being placed under 
the orders of Admiral Sir Alexander Duff, 
K.C.B., then Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff; 
and my old brigantine, under Osborne's com- 
mand, was ordered to the English Channel. 
On the 1 6th June 19 17 she engaged two 

146 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

German submarines off the coast of Brittany 
(one of them being disguised as a ketch), and 
after a prolonged and gallant action sent one 
to the bottom totally destroyed, gaining for the 
officers and crew two Distinguished Service 
Crosses, three Distinguished Service Medals, 
and the thanks of the Lords Commissioners of 
the Admiralty. 

It was characteristic of Osborne to write to 
Conrad and myself on his return to harbour, 
saying that after the action his one regret was 
that we were not on board at the time ; also 
that this regret was shared by the whole 
ship's company. 

After the Armistice Conrad sent me a very 
cordial invitation to stay with him, but as I 
was at the time engaged in clearing the sea 
of mines, British as well as German, I was 
unable to accept ; in fact it was not until the 
summer of this year that I met my old 
" Comrade in Arms " again. I suggested to 
him that the time was ripe for my long- 
deferred visit, to which he lost no time in 
replying, adding that he would meet me at 
the railway station with his car. 

The train by which I travelled steamed 
punctually into the station, but alas ! there was 

147 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

no Conrad and no car. Later, he turned up 
brimful of laughter and apologies, explaining 
that he had abandoned his own car in mid- 
road and transferred his flag to this jury-rigged 
arrangement, as he described a very worn and 
rickety old taxi. A mile from the station his 
own car hove in sight, and in this — a magni- 
ficent smooth-running Cadillac — we soon 
covered the six or seven miles to his home. 
As we swung into the drive Conrad looked 
skywards and smilingly whispered, " The sun 
is over the fore-yard." As a sailor I knew 
what he meant, and I was glad, because, as 
some writers would describe it, " It was near 
high noon." 

Some few minutes later we celebrated our 
reunion. He was delightful, full of laughter, 
and when he presented me to Mrs Conrad 
and the other members of his household he 
gave me the true Conradion impression that 
I was the one person in all this wide world 
that he most wished to meet. 

In his study, with its shelves on three sides 
full of books, we talked for an hour. He 
recalled many incidents of the cruise, and 
nearly five years later had not forgotten the 
names of different members of the crew. 

148 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

At luncheon we laughed as we recalled our 
menus on shipboard, starting with all the 
delicacies in season, and ending with salt 
horse (as sailors describe salt beef) and hard 
biscuits. 

Afterwards he showed me round his wonder- 
ful gardens, and on his well-rolled, carefully 
trimmed lawn, which he called his " Quarter 
deck," we walked arm-in-arm, as we had done 
many and many a time on the deck of the old 
Freya. It was a lovely day in June ; the 
trees were in full leaf and the flowers in 
bloom ; the sun was shining gloriously and 
the birds singing to their hearts' content : it 
was a day when one felt that it was good to 
be alive ; and yet we would have given every- 
thing, risked all, for one glorious hour of 
battle with an enemy submarine. 

After tea I took my leave, after a truly 
delightful and most enjoyable day. What 
I felt on leaving was that I had been " At 
sea with Mr Conrad " and " At home with 
Mr Conrad" — two great privileges; but what 
was to me greater than all was that I had 
made a friend of Mr Conrad. 

Since my visit to him it has many times 
occurred to me that the countless admirers of 

149 



AT SEA WITH JOSEPH CONRAD 

Conrad's works would be interested to read of 
the great part he nobly played in the Great 
War for Civilisation. He chose the three 
most dangerous sides — the Q-brigantine, mine- 
sweeping and flying — at an age, too, when 
thousands of men years younger than himself 
were excused from serving. My attempt, 
unpractised and unliterary as it may seem, can 
convey only but a poor idea of the great 
charm of the man — his love of the sea and 
seamen ; his kindness and thoughtfulness for 
others ; his nobility ; his bravery and every- 
thing about him, which brought to mind 
Kipling's conception of " The Hundredth 
Man." Having said this much, my story is 
ended. 



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